Miscarriages of justice rise after police failures to disclose evidence
POLICE failing to disclose evidence, which could be crucial to defendants, is leading to a “steady stream of miscarriages of justice”, the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has said.
The problem is so widespread that addressing each failure could bring courts “to a halt”.
A number of cases have collapsed after evidence that should have been disclosed earlier was revealed at the eleventh hour.
Police are meant to disclose unused evidence from their investigations if it can assist the defendant. However, in many cases this is either done too late or not done properly, the justice committee was told.
Kevin Mcginty, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Inspectorate, which oversees the work of the Crown Prosecution Service, said the “single most frequent cause” of miscarriages of justice involves police officers’ “failure to disclose information which could have assisted the accused”.
The quality of the evidence forms submitted by police is a regular problem, Mr Mcginty told the committee. “If we challenged every bad [form], the system would grind to a halt.”
Mr Mcginty said the police need to “get a grip on the investigative process before someone is charged, then people will not end up in custody when they shouldn’t.”
Disclosing evidence too late in the process, after a suspect has been charged, “wastes everyone’s time”.
“It doesn’t seem to be getting better. If anything, it seems to be getting slightly worse.”
In the past year, 97 per cent of criminal defence solicitors encountered errors in evidence disclosure, a report by the Criminal Law Solicitors’ Association found.
The Justice Committee heard that police do not treat the disclosure of evidence with a “sense of urgency”, and can delegate the job to “the most junior person on the team”.
Too often, officers see disclosure as an “administrative exercise”, instead of it being “integral to the process”
The fault did not only lie with police. Prosecutors were accused of “failing to keep a proper audit track” of evidence while magistrates’ courts were accused of being “almost dismissive”.
Wendy Williams, inspector of HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, said there is a “fundamental lack of understanding about the importance of disclosure”.
She said a recent review of training programmes for officers was “very much out of date” and that the College of Policing was “not fulfilling its responsibility” when it came to adequately preparing officers.