§ Mr. Berminghamasked the Attorney-General if his guidelines as to disclosure of previous inconsistent statements and unused material will apply in summary cases.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe guidelines issued by my predecessor in 1981 concern the disclosure to the defence of "unused material" in cases to be tried on indictment. There are not separate guidelines as to the disclosure of previous inconsistent statements. However, the term "unused material" includes all witness statements that have not otherwise been served on the defence, whether or not the maker of the statement is to give evidence for the prosecution. Thus, previous inconsistent written statements are covered by the 1981 outlines.
In addition to the obligations imposed by the 1981 guidelines, the general duty to be fair requires a prosecutor to disclose to the defence any materially inconsistent statement made by a prosecution witness, written or oral, of which the prosecutor becomes aware at any stage of the proceedings. That duty applies equally to summary proceedings and to proceedings on indictment.