Part of 2. Questions to the Counsel General – in the Senedd at 2:41 pm on 7 February 2018.
I thank the Counsel General for his response and I agree entirely with him that the fact that a number of cases have failed because the disclosure procedures on both sides—well, one side in particular—have failed endangers the way that we deal with rape cases and sexual offences in Wales, and undermines confidence in the system. That’s not something that I want to see, and I’m sure that the Counsel General doesn’t want to see that either. It’s important that justice is being administered in the right way on both sides, of course. It’s clear that there are severe deficiencies in the disclosure of information to the defence and that the Crown Prosecution Service hasn’t acted satisfactorily on every occasion to ensure that that has happened. So, can I ask specifically whether you have a number that you can give us of the cases under review in Wales? Are you discussing this with the Crown Prosecution Service to ensure that appropriate resources are given to the service and on the policing side of things to ensure that we don’t fall into this trap again?