Clause 27 - Initial duty of disclosure by prosecutor
Criminal Justice Bill
2:30 pm
Mr Simon Hughes (North Southwark and Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)
I want to raise an issue that I raised with the Minister before our proceedings, because it relates as much to this clause as to others. How do we manage the collection of witness statements so that we do not discourage people from giving evidence? The Minister may remember that I specifically raised people's reluctance to give evidence with him and Lord Falconer, the Minister for Criminal Justice, Sentencing and Law Reform. We probably all face the same problem in our constituencies. People are understandably reluctant to give evidence when they witness a crime, particularly a more serious one. They know that their statement, to which their name and address will be appended, is likely to be in everyone's hands pretty quickly. By definition, it will be in the prosecution's hands because the police will collect it and pass it to the Crown Prosecution Service. It will
have to be disclosed to the defence as part of the prosecution evidence. It might also have to be disclosed under the clause if it
''might reasonably be considered capable of undermining''
the prosecution case. It might be something that the prosecution had not anticipated. I have regularly found that that can be a serious problem. I should like to float publicly an idea that I floated elsewhere, which might affect all clauses concerned with disclosure. It might be worth—[Interruption.] We are all in the same position now.