A director of public prosecutions was first recommended by the Criminal Law Commission in 1845, who said that: The
County and Borough Police Act 1856 allowed the Home Office to ask the
Treasury Solicitor's Department to take on cases of particular importance, but this left many cases falling through the net. As a result, the
Prosecution of Offences Act 1879 was passed, which created a director of public prosecutions (DPP) to advise the police and personally act in cases of importance; an elaboration on the 1856 Act. The first appointee was
Sir John Maule QC, who took up his post in 1880. Maule was a quiet, reserved and cautious man, who interpreted his powers in an unnecessarily restrictive way, feeling that he could do little more than send cases to the Treasury Solicitor's office, and that it was not the job of the DPP to prosecute cases. He came under harsh criticism, which reached a head in 1883 when he refused to authorise prosecution of a pair of blackmailers, who were instead prosecuted privately, convicted and given heavy sentences. As a result of the fallout, the
Home Secretary William Harcourt set up a committee into "the present action and position of the Director of Public Prosecutions". ==List of directors==