Police too late in referring hundreds of cases to prosecutors

Daniel Johnson

Between 2015/16 and 2017/18 there has been around a 20 per cent increase in the number of cases that are not prosecuted because they are time barred, data supplied by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service shows.

This means that while police officers believe they know who committed a crime, they cannot arrest and charge suspects because too much time has elapsed since the crime took place.

Freedom of Information requests from Scottish Labour show hundreds of time barred crimes have been recorded.

The party is calling for a review of time barring and is demanding the Scottish government use its upcoming budget to better resource police so they can investigate and charge those they believe guilty more swiftly.

Scottish Labour’s justice spokesperson Daniel Johnson MSP said: “These are shocking figures.

“Criminals, some of whom could have committed serious crimes, are not being charged because investigations have dragged on too long. That is simply unacceptable.

“Of course, criminal investigations can often be complex and time consuming, but to have criminals potentially being let off the hook points to much deeper issues.

“We need to see a review of time barring to ensure criminals are not wrongly slipping through the cracks.”