Only British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Quebec (a civil code jurisdiction) have a Director of Public Prosecutions office per se.
In this regard, the PPSC assumes the role played within the Department of Justice by the former Federal Prosecution Service (FPS).
The PPSC is responsible for prosecuting offences under more than 50 federal statutes and for providing prosecution-related legal advice to law enforcement agencies.
[citation needed] The creation of the PPSC reflects the decision to make transparent the principle of prosecutorial independence, free from any improper influence.
In addition, the mandate includes initiating and conducting prosecutions on behalf of the Crown with respect to offences under the Canada Elections Act.
Safeguarding the director's independence is the requirement that all instructions from the attorney general be in writing and published in the Canada Gazette.
The Director of Public Prosecutions (Chinese: 刑事檢控專員) of Hong Kong heads the Prosecutions Division of the Department of Justice, which is responsible for prosecuting trials and appeals on behalf of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, providing legal advice to law enforcement agencies on investigations, acting on behalf of the Secretary for Justice in the institution of criminal proceedings, and providing advice to bureaux and departments on measures to reform the criminal law.
James Hamilton, who had served as DPP for 12 years, announced in July 2011 that he would be taking early retirement and stepped down in November 2011.
[1] List of DPPs since 1974:[2] The agency's headquarters is located on the southern edge of Phoenix Park, Dublin; in a group of historic buildings that used to be the Royal Military Infirmary before independence.
[3][4] During its review of the Constitution of Malta, the Venice Commission proposed to split the role of the Attorney-General (who, at the time, was both the principal legal adviser to the Government and the principal public prosecutor in the country) on the model of other Commonwealth countries: the Attorney-General would henceforth serve only as the Government's legal advisor, while their prosecutorial functions would be spun off into a new office of Director of Public Prosecutions.
The actual amendments, however, split the role in the opposite way, the Attorney-General remains the chief public prosecutor, while legal advice to the government is provided by the State Advocate.
The current DPP is Rashid Ahmine who was promoted in 2022 to this role after the retirement of Satyajit Boolell S.C, who occupied the post since 2009.
[7] Under Scots law the public prosecutor is the Lord Advocate who is the head of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.