Christopher John

[email address]

Our ref: 1777

Dear Mr John

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

Thank you for your Freedom of Information Act request which we received on 13 May 2009.

In that request you asked for the following:

i) Could you please provide of the rules on the disclosure of

previous convictions of witnesses to the defence team in criminal

prosecutions and proceedings?

ii) Could you also provide any guidance in regards to the

disclosure or non-disclosure of such witness convictions in private

prosecution proceedings?

iii) If the guidance between private and public prosecutions is

different what implications are there when a private prosecution is

'taken over' or adopted formally by the Crown?

Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 creates a statutory right of access to information held by public authorities i.e. the Crown Prosecution Service. This right is to be informed whether the information requested is held by the public authority or not, and if the information exists, for it to be communicated. A public authority must reply to such a request promptly and in any event, not later than twenty working days after receipt.

The individual's right to information is not unqualified and subject to a number of exceptions and exemptions that are contained within the Act. The majority of these exemptions are qualified, that is to say the decision whether to confirm or deny the information's existence or to disclose the requested material, will be subject to a public interest.

The Freedom of Information Act is a public disclosure regime, not a private regime. Any information disclosed under it is thereafter deemed to be in the public domain, and therefore freely available to the general public.

In relation to questions 1 and 2, the information you have requested is already reasonable accessible to you by other means and is therefore exempt at section 21 of the Act. I have, however, attached a link below to the guidance on the CPS website in relation to disclosure of previous convictions of prosecution witnesses.

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/disclosure_of_previous_convictions_of_prosecution_witnesses/index.html

Guidance in relation to disclosure of material to third parties - and other matters relating to Private Prosecutions, including the processes to be followed when the CPS take over a Private Prosecution, can be found in the legal guidance on the CPS website.

[Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ][Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ][Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ]http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/p_to_r/private_prosecutions/#P150_11228[Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ][Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ][Author ID1: at Wed May 20 13:57:00 2009 ]

I can confirm that the CPS does not hold any other information falling within the scope of your request.

If you are unhappy with the decisions made in relation to your request from the Crown Prosecution Service you may ask for an internal review within two calendar months of the date of this letter. If you wish to request an internal review, please contact the Freedom of Information Unit (Appeals), 50 Ludgate Hill, London, EC4M 7EX.

If you are not content with the outcome of the internal review, you have the right to apply directly to the Information Commissioner for a decision. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner's Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Yours sincerely

Charlotte Keen

Information Management Unit

Crown Prosecution Service

20 May 2009