Dropped court cases cost tax payer £100 every minute

6.43.00pm GMT Thu 29th Dec 2005

Court cases that have been dropped before reaching a verdict cost the taxpayer almost £80 million in the last eighteen months, equivalent to £100 every minute, according to figures uncovered by Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow.

The figures also show the amount spent on dropped court cases is 18 per cent of the total amount spent on prosecuting all cases, revealing the massive expense to the tax payer of cases that never reach a verdict. The figures were disclosed to Paul Burstow in response to a Parliamentary question.

The cost of cases dropped in the magistrates courts over the last year and a half came to £44m. And dropped Crown Court cases came to £36m over the same period.

The number one factor for cases being dropped is that there is an essential legal element missing. This is true across both magistrates and Crown Court cases.

"It is shocking that dropped court cases cost the taxpayer £100 every minute. The fact that one in four cases are dropped because a piece of the legal jig-saw puzzle is missing should be sounding alarm bells in the legal system.

"The victims of crime want to know that the system is working for them and that justice is done. Dropped cases are not only a waste of time and money: they undermine public confidence in our courts."