Reset to Today

To access the FCA Handbook Archive choose a date between 1 January 2001 and 31 December 2004.

Content Options:

Content Options

View Options:


You are viewing the version of the document as on 2024-12-10.

Timeline guidance

Alternative versions

  1. Point in time
    2024-12-10

EG App 3.6 COPFS

EG App 3.6.1RP

1The investigation and prosecution of crime in Scotland is the responsibility of the Lord Advocate, who is the head of the COPFS, which comprises Procurators Fiscal and their Deputes, who are answerable to the Lord Advocate. The Procurator Fiscal is the sole public prosecutor in Scotland, prosecuting cases reported not only by the police but all regulatory departments and agencies. All prosecutions before a jury, both in the High Court of Justiciary and in the Sheriff Court, run in the name of the Lord Advocate; all other prosecutions run in the name of the local Procurator Fiscal. The Head Office of the Procurator Fiscal Service is the Crown Office and the Unit within the Crown Office which deals with serious and complex fraud cases and with the investigation of cases of interest or concern to the Financial Services Authority is the National Casework Division: the remit of this Unit is directly comparable to that of the Serious Fraud Office.