Director of Public Prosecutions Ken Macdonald has held out the hope that the Crown Prosecution Service may become known as the Public Prosecution Service at the end of a major transformation of the way it operates. Mr. Macdonald told the Financial Times that “no decision has been made . . . But I see it as a public prosecution service.”
A change of name would be welcomed by republicans who are offended that many public institutions paid for by taxpayers are associated by their names with a pre-democratic and divisive institution. Those who wish to preserve Britain’s class structure and traditions of deference can be expected to resist any change of name fiercely.