Member

The noble Baroness’s amendment would permit discontinuance to be used in a much wider range of situations, far beyond rectifying any errors that arise through the victim right of review process. By allowing discontinuance up to the start of trial in every Crown Court case, the amendment would, in effect, make discontinuance the default mechanism for stopping prosecutions in the Crown Court. That could affect up to 10,000 cases a year currently brought to an end by the prosecution offering no evidence. It would be a major change and one that might be to the significant disadvantage of not just defendants but victims.