Justice delayed

sir – Before I retired from the Crown Prosecution Service in 2015, I had cause to recover from our archive the case papers in a three-handed murder case that I had conduct of in 1993. The entire file, including all evidence and disclosure, was in a pile no more than four inches high.

The last major case I handled in 2015 contained a disclosure schedule (merely a list of the unused material with a brief line describing each item) comprising many thousands of items; it filled three large arch-files and was at least four times the size of the murder file. The actual material filled a large room in the police station responsible and took the disclosure officer well over six months to read and itemise. The actual evidence was over and above this material.

It is hardly surprising that prosecuting a case takes much longer now (Leading Article, January 13). It is not just that the evidence has tended to increase in volume; the capacity to retain and store material has also increased exponentially. Tony Connell

London N5

sir – There is evidence that pre-court diversion can, in the right circumstances, be effective in reducing reoffending, and we do not want to see the courts clogged up with minor offences that are better dealt with by the police (report, January 16).

Panels should, however, be established in every area to scrutinise the police’s use of out-of-court disposals, identifying inappropriate use and tackling inconsistency. This would help to increase confidence in the justice system, not only among magistrates but also the wider public. John Bache JP

National Chairman Magistrates Association London SW8