Police struggling with workload and disclosure procedures for court trials

A campaign has called on the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to jointly work with the national police force in ensuring all officers receive face-to-face training on disclosure procedures.

The new disclosure rules, which started in January 2021, require officers to provide the CPS with a trial-ready prosecution before it makes a decision about charging. They have had a massive effect on detectives and other officers, increasing workloads by 33 per cent.

Hampshire Police Federation chair Zoë Wakefield said their officers were struggling to cope with the workload.

She said: ‘Whereas before it might take you an hour to put a file together to send to CPS, it’ll now take you three hours to put that file together because you have to go through every single document. It’s just absolutely ridiculous.

‘I can’t think of any other word for it, other than ridiculous, for the amount of work this has created for officers. And it’s had a huge impact on our CID colleagues and those in investigations. And obviously for the CPS as well.

‘We’ve got to the point where the force had to employ some extra people to help do this disclosure work. I think it was brought in without any awareness of the impact it would have on operational police officers trying to investigate even the simplest of crimes.

‘I know from talking to our colleagues that it has increased their workload hugely and they’re all struggling to cope.’