The ‘standards’ required of those conducting a private prosecution are of the highest order:
“…Advocates and solicitors who have conduct of private prosecutions must observe the highest standards of integrity, of regard for the public interest and duty to act as a Minister for Justice (as described by Farquharson J) in preference to the interests of the client who has instructed them to bring the prosecution[1]”.
Lawyers instructed by a private prosecutor are therefore expected, however difficult or inconvenient it may be, to ensure that the prosecution is conducted according to a set of principles established in 1986 by a committee tasked with reviewing the role of prosecuting counsel. In the introduction to its Report the committee wrote:
“There is no doubt that the obligations of Prosecution Counsel are different from those of Counsel instructed for the defence in a criminal case or of Counsel instructed in civil matters … though his description as a ‘Minister of Justice’ may sound pompous to modern ears it accurately describes the way in which he should discharge his function.”
[1] Zinga [2014] 1 WLR 2228