Legal Questions and Answers by
Jonathan Stones of John Barkers
Question :-
In the discussion about the Home Secretary's White Paper I was surprised to read that 60,000 criminal cases a year are dropped or collapse before they get to court. What on earth is going wrong?
Answer :-
Cases are dropped for a whole variety of reasons. One of the most common causes is that victims or witnesses either refuse to give evidence or simply fail to turn up at court. This accounts for around half of the 60,000 cases you refer to.
In other instances the Crown Prosecution Service take the decision that the case does not stand as sufficiently good chance of success, or there is some other reason why the prosecution would not be in the public interest.
Sixty thousand cases a year does sound a lot but it is in fact approximately 13 per cent of the cases that are dealt with by the courts each year. It is a cause for concern but it does not indicate the criminal justice system is cracking up.
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