§ Mr. Alex CarlileTo ask the Attorney-General what arrangements are available to review convictions which have been upheld on appeal from the magistrates court to the Crown Court, but in relation to which new evidence has come to light after the Crown Court appeal; and if he will make a statement.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThere is no statutory power to enable such convictions to be reviewed or appealed against although the Divisional Court has held that it has, in its supervisory jurisdiction, power to quash the conviction of a defendant who pleaded 'guilty on the basis of flawed evidence unwittingly relied on by the prosecution or whose conviction was obtained by fraud, collusion, perjury or other like matter. I refer the hon. and learned Gentleman to the judgment in R.v. Bolton Justices Ex Parte Scally which is reported at [1991] 2All ER 619 and at [1991] 1 QB 537.