Director of Public Prosecutions (Hong Kong)
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1 July 1997
| Director of Public Prosecutions | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Appointer | Secretary for Justice |
| Term length | Varies (contract based); mandatory retirement age of 60 |
| Inaugural holder | Peter Van Tu Nguyen, QC, SC, 1997 |
| Formation | Hong Kong Basic Law 1 July 1997 |
The Director of Public Prosecutions of Hong Kong (DPP) is a law officer and head of the Prosecutions Division of the Department of Justice; the director is responsible for directing the conduct of trials and appeals on behalf of Hong Kong, providing legal advice to law enforcement agencies (such as Hong Kong Police, Hong Kong Customs and Excise, and ICAC), exercising the discretion of whether to institute criminal proceedings, and providing advice to others in government on proposed changes to the criminal law.
Former directors include David Leung SC, a lifelong prosecutor who joined the Prosecutions Division in 1995; he was appointed director in 2017. Leung resigned on 31 July 2020, citing differences with Secretary for Justice Teresa Cheng, leaving the post at the end of the year.[1]
The current director is Maggie Yang Mei-kei. She was appointed director on 13 August 2021 and is the first woman and non-Queen's Counsel to be appointed director.[2]
British Hong Kong (before 1 July 1997)
Before the creation of a dedicated prosecutions division, prosecutions were handled by the Attorney General and the Crown Solicitor, with all crown counsel being public prosecutors ex officio. As is the case today, prosecutions were sometimes briefed out to outside counsel or conducted by lay officers of other government departments. By the early 1950s, the Legal Department had a prosecutions section staffed with four crown counsel, one of which was Patrick Yu, who became the first Chinese lawyer to become a crown counsel. While both Supreme Court and magistrates' court prosecutions were under the department's remit, most cases in the magistrates' courts were prosecuted by police inspectors.[3]
The earliest mention of the position of DPP in statute was in an amendment to the Legal Officers Ordinance on 22 December 1966, which added the title of Director of Public Prosecutions to the Schedule of legal officers under the ordinance. The position was retitled Crown Prosecutor in 1979, and remained that way until the Handover in 1997, though the position continued to be commonly known as the Director of Public Prosecutions.[4]
After the Handover (1997-present)
The position's title was restored to its original name upon the handover on 1 July 1997.