Prosecutions
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will list the offences for which the Single Justice Procedure can be used.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
We do not have a list of the offences prosecutable under the Single Justice Procedure (SJP). It can be used to deal with any non-imprisonable summary-only offence in cases which are non-contested and where the prosecutor considers it appropriate. In all SJP cases, the defendant has the option to choose for their case to be heard in open court rather than through the SJP process.
Our consultation on the Oversight and Regulation of Private Prosecutors, which closed on 8 May 2025, looks at the operation of the SJP generally. We are analysing the responses which will inform future work in this area, including the need for reforms to ensure the SJP operates in a fair and transparent manner.
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