(The lack of) disclosure and the constant drive for efficiency

Johnston, Ed

Abstract

With the recent HMIC report on the disclosure of unused material and the Mouncher Report (both published July 2017) calling for both: 1. Better training of disclosure officers and 2. Better communication between the police and CPS; this paper calls for a harder approach when dealing with CPS disclosure failures.

The courts should be as (in)tolerant with CPS failures as they are with the defence. If the defence have been incentivised, via sanctions, to get their disclosure ship in order. The CPS should be treated in the same vein. These problems have existed for almost two decades with no discernible fix; it's time to take a harsher stance with CPS disclosure failings.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jul 21, 2017
• Publication Date: Jul 29, 2017
• Deposit Date: Aug 1, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 4, 2017
• Journal: Criminal Law and Justice Weekly
• Print ISSN: 1759-7943
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 181
• Pages: 524-526
• Keywords: criminal procedure, adversarialism, managerialism, disclosure, CPS, disclosure officer, defence lawyer, criminal law
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/883879
• Publisher URL: https://www.criminallawandjustice.co.uk/
• Contract Date: Aug 4, 2017