[2] In 2009, Starmer upheld the decision not to prosecute the police officers who had killed Jean Charles de Menezes in a High Court appeal lodged by the family.

[20] In February 2010, Starmer announced the CPS's decision to prosecute three Labour MPs and a Conservative peer for offences relating to false accounting in the aftermath of the parliamentary expenses scandal.

[23] In 2010 and 2012, Starmer said that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute two members of the UK security services for their alleged role in torture overseas; he supported further investigation.

[24][25][26] In July 2010, Starmer announced the decision not to prosecute the police officer Simon Harwood in relation to the death of Ian Tomlinson.

[40] Starmer prioritised rapid prosecutions of those involved in the 2011 England riots over long sentences, which he later said had helped to bring "the situation back under control".

[43] Starmer declined to authorise a wider enquiry, after a report from the judge Christopher Rose found the issue to be a result of individual fault rather than a systemic problem.

[47] In the summer of 2012, journalist Nick Cohen wrote that Starmer was personally responsible for prosecuting Paul Chambers in the Twitter joke trial.

[48] Later that year, Starmer published a plan for the criminal justice system to better handle cases of female genital mutilation; at the time, the offence had never been successfully prosecuted.

[50][51] When Jimmy Savile's sexual abuse crimes were exposed in 2012, Starmer said amid the subsequent scandal that "It was like a dam had bust and people rightfully wanted to know why he had been allowed to get away with it for so long.

[53] Starmer responded by saying "It never came close to crossing my desk and the local CPS lawyer who looked at the case did not even mention the decision to his immediate boss because, to him, it seemed routine.

Starmer's proposals were intended to make it easier for victims of violent crime to come forward and to facilitate their participation in criminal proceedings.

[63][64] Later that month, the Labour Party announced that Starmer would lead an enquiry into changing the law to give further protection to victims in cases of rape and child abuse.

[65] From 2011 to 2014, Starmer received honorary degrees from several universities, and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) by Charles, Prince of Wales in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to law and criminal justice.

Imran Ahmed of the CCDH stated, "Every time a violent extremist makes a threat of violence and gets away with it, the norms of those groups worsen, and others are driven to newer depths of behaviour.

"[74] On 2 January 2025, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised Starmer's Labour government for not supporting a government-led inquiry into the Oldham child sexual exploitation scandal.

[77][78] Subsequently, Elon Musk, owner of X, said Starmer was "complicit in the crimes", as head of the Crown Prosecution Service when the abuse occurred.

[82] He also said that, under him, the CPS had "the highest number of child sexual abuse cases being prosecuted on record", and that politicians and activists were "spreading lies and misinformation" over grooming gangs to appeal to the far-right.

[86] He received the Bar Council's Sydney Elland Goldsmith Award in 2005 for his outstanding contribution to pro bono work in challenging the death penalty in Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, and the Caribbean.