Our ref: 1805

Thursday, 25 June 2009

Dear Mr Dodsworth

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 REQUEST

Thank you for your clarification which was received on 6 June 2009. In that email you asked for the following information in relation to a case against you:

“Why did the cps discard vital evidence as unused material i.e. my eBay accounts recorded by Pc Derek Moss in June 2007”.

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.

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 Criminal Proceedings Investigations Act 1996 (CPIA), as amended by the Criminal Justice Act 2003, provides the statutory framework governing the disclosure of unused material in criminal proceedings. I can confirm that the provisions and statutory tests under CPIA were applied by both the police and CPS when considering the evidence in your case.

It may be helpful if I explain that `”unused material” is material that may be relevant to a criminal investigation that has been retained but does not form part of the case for the prosecution against the accused. “Relevant material” is defined in the Code for Crown Prosecutors (http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/code_for_crown_prosecutors/) as anything that appears to an investigator, or the officer in charge of an investigation or the disclosure officer to have some bearing on any offence under investigation or any person being investigated or on the surrounding circumstances unless it is incapable of having any impact on the case. “Disclosure” refers to providing the defence with copies of, or access to, any material which might reasonably be considered capable of undermining the case for the prosecution against the accused, or of assisting the case for the accused, and which has not previously been disclosed.

For further information about disclosure of unused material to defence, please click on the link:

http://www.cps.gov.uk/legal/d_to_g/disclosure_manual/

If you have concerns or queries regarding the disclosure of material under the provisions of CPIA, you will need to address these to the CPS Area handling your case or seek independent legal advice.

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

Ms Kadir

Information Management Unit

Information Management Unit

Business Information Systems Directorate

50 Ludgate Hill

London

EC4M 7EX

T. 020 796 8000

F. 0207 796 8439

FOIUnit@cps.gsi.gov.uk

www.cps.gov.uk