Court's oversight of the interests of justice and fairness, reasonableness and proportionality

The UK deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) regime provides for judicial oversight of DPAs.

After negotiations as to the terms of a DPA have commenced and before it has been concluded, the court must determine:

1. •

   whether it is likely to be in the interests of justice, and

2. •

   that its proposed terms are fair, reasonable and proportionate

Therefore, each factor must be supported by clear and persuasive proof in order to seek to persuade the court to approve the DPA.

The declarations given under Schedule 17 Part 1, para 8 to the Crime and Courts Act 2013 (CCA 2013) to date provide insight into the court's approach as to when a DPA is suitable and this has, in turn, fed into the prosecutor's approach (see Practice Note: The SFO's approach to Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) [Archived]).

For detailed information on DPAs in general, the process followed by the court when considering whether to approve an agreement and the cases in which DPAs have been agreed to date,