Review exposes police and CPS evidence failures in half of cases
POLICE and prosecution lawyers are failing to disclose evidence correctly in nearly half of court cases, a watchdog review has found.
Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate identified a substantial number of shortcomings in a sample of hundreds of cases over two years in England.
Poor descriptions of items on unused material schedules were the main cause of marking down nearly half (41.9 per cent) of the 556 cases that did not fully meet the standard expected.
In other instances, items were listed wrongly or witnesses’ previous convictions were not dealt with properly.
The report said police fully complied with their disclosure obligations in relation to unused material in 734 out of a snapshot of 1,290 cases (56.9 per cent), with partial compliance in a further 36.7 per cent.
The review came after police were accused of not properly carrying out basic procedures in a string of highprofile cases which collapsed.
Failures to uncover key evidence that exonerated or supported the case of defendants has lead to the collapse of four rape trials in recent months.
A former special adviser to Sir Michael Fallon, the former defence secretary, accused police of a “cruel public-shaming” after he was acquitted of sexual assault in May.
Richard Holden, 33, criticised their “delayed and incomplete” disclosure in the case. A jury took just an hour to find him not guilty.
The inspectorate said it saw “limited evidence” of prosecutors identifying police lack of compliance in reviews or other notes on files, or of them feeding that back to the police.
Prosecutors’ compliance on initial disclosure was “not much better than that of the police”, with only 557 out of 954 cases (58.4 per cent) fully meeting the requirements.
Of 429 cases that failed, eight had a failure throughout the life of the proceedings to disclose material that undermined the prosecution case or assisted the defence, the report said.
However, no miscarriages of justice were detected as a result of the eight “complete” failures.
Inspectors said that although the number of cases looked at was small, they were representative of the overall picture.
The inspectorate also said that while leadership was strong nationally, there was cause for concern about casework handling.
Between first appearance and trial, in many cases the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) did not manage progress effectively and too much work was left until a late stage, the assessment found.
Kevin Mcginty, head of the CPS Inspectorate, said: “This is about getting the right cases before the courts, ensuring that disclosure has been dealt with appropriately and progressing cases efficiently to ensure cases are trial ready at the earliest opportunity.”
A CPS spokesman said: “It is encouraging this report showed strong leadership across the CPS.
“By September, our prosecutors will have completed mandatory disclosure training; local and national improvement plans are in place and we will continue to monitor progress closely.”