Crown Prosecution Service
Principal public prosecuting authority for England and Wales.
Any charge from the inquiry the Metropolitan Police opened in September 2026 into reports about donations and polling involving a political party would fall to the Crown Prosecution Service, which charged no one after the cash-for-honours investigation of 2006 and 2007.
Last refreshed: 7 October 2026
Timeline for Crown Prosecution Service
Charged no one after the 2006-07 cash-for-honours inquiry
UK Local Elections 2026: Mentioned in: Delo and Harborne give Reform £72mMentioned in: Police question two over Reform money
UK Local Elections 2026Background
The Crown Prosecution Service is the main public prosecutor for England and Wales. The Prosecution of Offences Act 1985 created it under the Director of Public Prosecutions, and it began work on 1 October 1986. Until then, police forces had largely prosecuted their own cases.
Crown prosecutors advise the police while an investigation is running, decide what charge, if any, a suspect should face, and Conduct cases in the magistrates' courts and the Crown Court. The service does not investigate crimes itself.
That division of Labour places the CPS at the end of any police inquiry into political money. It closed the cash-for-honours affair without a prosecution, and it would make the call on any case arising from the Met's 2026 inquiry.
Charging decisions rest with prosecutors
In September 2026 the Metropolitan Police said it had received reports about donations and polling involving a political party and saw potential offences that needed investigating. If that work produces a file, whether anyone stands trial becomes a question for crown prosecutors rather than the police.
The last comparable case stopped at exactly that stage. The Met's cash-for-honours inquiry ran from March 2006 to July 2007, and the CPS brought no charges at its end. That history sets expectations for any party-money investigation: police inquiries can run for more than a year, and the prosecutor's judgement on the evidence decides whether any of it reaches a court.