Evidence withheld, justice denied

Criminal defence practitioners are all too aware of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), the body responsible for prosecuting criminal charges against defendants, failing to comply with directions, failing to provide evidence or disclosure as required, and failing to respond to correspondence.

All too often, deadlines pass with not a word from the CPS. When chasers are sent, these are often ignored, too. It is a frustrating part of a defence practitioner’s work that happens far too frequently, with the CPS appearing to ‘get away’ with it, or even worse, the defence being blamed for not chasing enough times. More importantly, a defendant has to endure the anxiety of unnecessarily protracted proceedings, and any extra expense and inconvenience that comes with that. We are all sympathetic to the pressures the publicly funded body is under, but justice must work both ways; defendants are entitled to know and understand the case against