Calls To Simplify DG6

THE current evidence disclosure guidance is “absolutely ridiculous”, Hampshire Police Federation has said, as PFEW launches a campaign for the Government to simplify it.

Its campaign, #SimplifyDG6, also calls on the National Police Chiefs’ Council, the College of Policing and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to jointly work with PFEW 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%.

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 with just keeping on top of this disclosure work they have to do. There’s also an impact on victims because it’s taking longer for the cases to go through the system.

“It needs to be completely reviewed and simplified. Or the Home Office needs to employ a whole team to do this. Basically every force needs probably a team of 10 or 20 people just to do this disclosure work.”

In May, the Attorney General published a review of the disclosure guidance, but Ben Hudson, Chair of the Police Federation National Detectives’ Forum and National Lead on the Impact of Revised CPS Guidance, said that the review “does not provide any major action points to redress the shortcomings”.