Commentary on Sections Section 10: Consent to prosecution
54.A prosecution under the Act in England and Wales can only be brought with the consent of the Director of one of the three senior prosecuting authorities, that is to say the Director of Public Prosecutions, the Director of the Serious Fraud Office and the Director of Revenue and Customs Prosecutions (subsections (1) and (3)). Under subsection (4), the relevant Director must exercise the consent function personally. However, where the Director is unavailable (for example where he or she is out of the country or is incapacitated) another person who has been designated in writing by the Director to exercise any such function may do so, but must do so personally (subsections (5) and (6)). Provisions of other legislation which would allow another person to exercise the functions of one of the Directors do not apply to the Directors’ consent functions under section 10 (subsection (7))
55.A prosecution in Northern Ireland can only be brought with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland or the Director of the Serious Fraud Office (subsections (2), (3) and (8)). Under subsection (9) the Director of Public Prosecutions for Northern Ireland must exercise the consent function personally unless the consent function is exercised by the Deputy Director (again personally) by virtue of section 30(4) and (7) of the Justice (Northern Ireland) Act 2002. Under subsection (10), section 36 of the 2002 Act, which provides for the delegation of the Director’s functions, does not apply in relation to the Director’s functions of giving consent to prosecutions under the Act.