Comment by jamessb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jamessb | Hacker News Reader

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> The Royal Mail is (like until recently the RSPCA) one of the few entities in the UK entitled to bring its own prosecutions

No, the ability to bring a private prosecution is not restricted to specific entities - it is a right everyone has (though some offenses can only be prosecuted with the consent of the DPP, and the DPP can choose to take over a private prosecution) [1]. For example, a woman tried to crowdfund a private prosecution for rape [2].

From [1]:

> There are a number of organisations that regularly prosecute cases before the courts of England and Wales but they do so as private individuals, using the right of any individual to bring a private prosecution. One example is the RSPCA.

[1]: https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/private-prosecutions

[2]: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-41885897

OK -- I knew individuals could bring private prosecutions but I wasn't aware, I must admit, that the Royal Mail prosecuted as an "individual" now[0], and I stand happily corrected :-)

Though strictly speaking, before the concept of the "private prosecution" was formalised in law, the Royal Mail already had prosecutorial powers; it has always had prosecutorial powers. (The Royal Mail basically invented investigation-backed prosecution in the 17th century).

The Royal Mail is for sure one of the only major organisations to do it at scale too -- though the RSPCA did. The RSPCA have announced that they will no longer do it at all (not least because they have a terrible record of poorly founded and abusive prosecutions and had their arses handed to them in the High Court).

The point I was making here is that this investigation would never have gone to the police, because they have always reserved and widely wielded this power to investigate and prosecute. The Royal Mail even prosecute dog owners whose dogs bite postmen.

[0] which if you think about it presumably now imperils some individuals in a way that is distinct even from the extent to which Royal Mail (and Post Office Ltd) are vulnerable corporately.

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