Catherine McKinnell – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Attorney General

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Catherine McKinnell on 2015-11-18.

To ask the Attorney General, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the use of hearsay evidence in court proceedings in reducing the number of unsuccessful cases due to victim or witness issues; and what estimate he has made of the number of cases where hearsay evidence has been used by prosecutors in each year since 2010-11.

Robert Buckland

Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) prosecutors will apply to admit hearsay evidence where they consider it appropriate to do so and the legislation permits. However, the CPS does not record information on the number of cases where hearsay evidence has been used in the course of criminal proceedings. It follows, therefore, that no assessment of the effectiveness of the use of hearsay evidence in court proceedings in reducing the number of unsuccessful cases due to victim or witness issues is routinely conducted.