§ Mr. JackTo ask the Attorney-General what proportions of cases put by the police to the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecution are rejected. [76343]
The Attorney-GeneralThe Crown Prosecution Service discontinued 12 per cent. of cases completed in magistrates courts in 1998, almost unchanged from the figure recorded for each of the four preceding years.
More than half of discontinued cases are unable to proceed because witnesses fail to appear in court, refuse to give evidence, or change their evidence; defendants produce documents proving their innocence in motoring cases on the day of the trial; evidence is excluded because of irregularities in its collection; or there are gaps in the prosecution case which cannot be filled by the police. In these circumstances, the Crown Prosecution Service has no choice but to discontinue proceedings.
The number of cases discontinued against the opinion of the police is very small; a survey conducted in 1994 showed that the police objected to discontinuance on only 4 per cent. of occasions when they were consulted.