§ The Attorney-General (Lord Goldsmith)I refer to my Statement on 19 January, when I announced a review process in the light of the judgment of the Court of Appeal on that day in the case ofR v Angela Cannings.
Two hundred and fifty eight convictions over the past 10 years were identified involving the homicide of an infant aged under two years by its parent. Among these, cases where the defendant remains in custody will be accorded the highest priority.
The review process has begun. As a result of further work we have now identified that another 18 defendants are still serving a term of imprisonment in addition to the 54 I announced on 19 January. The relevant data are being rechecked so that the total number can be finalised as soon as possible.
Of these, one case file is already with the Criminal Cases Review Commission. A further 52, representing 365 boxes of evidence, have been recovered from central storage by the CPS and either are or are on the point of being reviewed. The remaining 19 priority cases are being retrieved locally. The process of retrieval of non-priority cases has begun.
With the help of my interdepartmental group I have established the system of review. Each individual case will first be subject to a preliminary review by the relevant CPS area to identify its key characteristics. Each case will then be reviewed by a central review team to establish whether any features identified by the Court of Appeal in Angela Cannings' judgment make the conviction potentially unsafe. That central team is being established and will be ready to start work as the files and preliminary reviews are received.
30WSIn all cases which appear to meet the above criteria the convicted person will be informed as soon as possible. I have discussed with the Court of Appeal how arrangements can be made to expedite cases which are to be heard by that court and I have also discussed with the Criminal Cases Review Commission the arrangements it is putting in place to permit the swift review of cases which may be affected by the judgment. These latter discussions are continuing.
The review of the 15 current cases is also continuing and the results of that review will be known shortly.