Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many times a victim has sought a review of a Crown Prosecution Service decision to leave all charges in the proceedings to lie on file since June 2013; how many such cases have related to a police officer or a police community support officer (PCSO); how many reviews have led to a reversal; and how many cases which resulted in reversal have related to a police officer or a PCSO.

The Crown Prosecution Service’s Victims’ Right to Review (VRR) Scheme came into effect on the 5^th June 2013. Between this date and the 31^st March 2016, the CPS made 354,097 qualifying decisions which were subject to review under the scheme. The CPS have subsequently reviewed 4,689 VRR appeals of which 570 (0.16% of the total qualifying decisions) were upheld.

The CPS does not maintain a central record of the type of employment a suspect or defendant is engaged in. This information could only be obtained by examining CPS case files, which would incur disproportionate cost.