CPS to issue full guidance on assisted suicide cases

Full guidance on when prosecutions should be brought for assisting suicide will be published next week, the Crown Prosecution Service said today.

The chief prosecutor in England and Wales, Keir Starmer QC, will publish his policy on Thursday February 25. It will replace interim guidelines introduced last year.

He was forced to act by a House of Lords judgment in the case of Debbie Purdy, a multiple sclerosis sufferer who wanted to know if her husband would be prosecuted for helping her end her life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland.

The policy will contain a series of factors to be taken into account when prosecutors weigh up whether to bring a case.