Unique for western democracies, New Zealand is the only country to outsource prosecution of serious crimes to the private sector.
[1] New Zealand, unlike many other jurisdictions, does not directly employ many lawyers to lay prosecutions.
Instead, the work of prosecution has been delegated to the Crown Law Office, headed by the Solicitor-General, who is a senior civil servant rather than a politician.
The Crown Law Office, among other duties, supervises the prosecution of major criminal offences.
In most other cases, the Government is often represented by Police prosecutors, or by prosecutors working for the Government department administering the law involved; for example, cases involving tax are often prosecuted by lawyers working for the Inland Revenue Department.