Newsflash from the Private Prosecution Group
From the
Private Prosecution Group
Chambers of Jonathan Laidlaw QC
2 Hare Court
Temple
London
The Chambers of Jonathan Laidlaw QC is a leading set of barristers with significant experience in bringing, and defending, private prosecutions:
On Tuesday, 7th July, Alison Levitt QC, (Private Prosecutors’ Association, Committee member) will give evidence before the House of Commons Justice Select Committee [JSC] inquiry on private prosecutions.
Oral evidence starts at 2:30pm and Alison’s session begins at 3:00pm. You can access the live broadcast of proceedings by clicking on this link:
By way of background, as a result of ‘the Post Office prosecutions’, the Criminal Cases Review Commission has written to the JSC asking it to conduct a formal review of “the circumstances and safeguards where an organisation is allowed … to act a prosecutor when it is also the victim and the investigator of an alleged offence” and the JSC has agreed.
Evidence will touch on important issues affecting access to justice at a time of chronic underfunding in the criminal justice system, including:
- The way in which large organisations conduct private prosecutions;
- The effectiveness of existing safeguards that regulate private prosecutions;
- Alternative legislative, legal and administrative safeguards that could be used to regulate the way in which large organisations use the right to bring private prosecutions;
- Whether the existing investigatory standards and duties of disclosure that apply to private prosecutions are effective;
- The effectiveness of different safeguards in preventing miscarriages of injustice [sic] resulting from the right to bring private prosecutions;
- The role of the Crown Prosecution Service in taking over private prosecutions;
- The role of the Attorney General in supervising private prosecutions;
- The role of the courts in private prosecutions; and
- The way in which private prosecutions are regulated in other jurisdictions.
We have submitted a response to the JSC’s call for written evidence which will be published in due course.
Please tune in and watch the proceedings live with us.
Categories: News | Newsflash