Who can bring a private prosecution?

Section 6(1) of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 preserves the right to bring private prosecutions in the following terms:

“…nothing in this Part shall preclude any person from instituting any criminal proceedings or conducting any criminal proceedings to which the Director’s duty to take over the conduct of proceedings does not apply.”

‘Any person’ means any private individual or entity. In Rubin v DPP [1990] 2 QB 80, Watkins LJ expressed the view that a prosecution should be brought in the name of an individual. This proposition was, however, doubted by Woolf LJ in Ealing Justices, ex parte Dixon [1990] 2 QB 91. Nonetheless, his lordship said (at p. 101) that he would ‘regard it as preferable’ for an individual to be named, albeit that he is acting on behalf of a body corporate.