If you are charged with a serious criminal offence – known as an ‘indictable offence' – the police will refer the matter to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) who will decide whether to ‘elect' (choose) to take the case on and, if they do so, whether to continue to prosecute the case.
If the ODPP does choose to take on the case, rather than refer it back to the police, it will then decide whether to continue to prosecute the existing charges, whether to replace them with different charges, or to withdraw the proceedings altogether.
For very serious cases – known as ‘strictly indictable cases' (eg murder, aggravated sexual assault etc) – the ODPP will not refer the case back to police to prosecute but will need to decide how to deal with the case.
