Criminal Disclosure

Question 1

Principles of Disclosure:

Answer 1

• The governing principle is Relevance. All relevant material on file is disclosable unless there are grounds to withhold under sections 16,17, or 18 of the Act.
• There is no obligation to acquire, for the purpose of satisfying disclosure obligations, material that is not already in Police possession or control.
• Disclosure is an on-going process and the reasons for withholding a document should be continuously reassessed.
• The disclosure process must be auditable, accountable, and record disclosure decisions that are made for a particular document.
• Effective file management systems are critical to the success of disclosure processes.

Question 2

Disclosure Manager responsibilities:

Answer 2

They must:

• ensure all relevant, discoverable material is provided to defence counsel.
• ensure all relevant and non- discoverable material is identified, listed and defence advised.
• continually assess the risk to ensure that non- discoverable material is identified and withheld.
• ensure that robust auditable systems are employed to record disclosure decisions and actions (this includes compiling and maintaining the disclosure index)
• manage disclosure timeframes within provisions of the act, or as otherwise directed by the courts.
• retain and file all correspondence with defence, both incoming and outgoing.
• Make brief record of disclosure delivery in NIA.

Question 3

What is the obligation when new counsel is assigned:

Answer 3

Police have an obligation where the legal representative of a defendant is replaced, to ensure the replacement counsel is provided with all material previously disclosed.

Question 4

*** What does section 10(4) of the Disclosure Act 2008 involve

Answer 4

It provides that Disclosure may be supplied in whatever form, including electronically, that the person disclosing the information holds it in at time of the request, provided it is readily accessible to the Defendant.

Question 5

*** Initial action of disclosure manager:

Answer 5

• Read the Disclosure Managers desk file
• Access the current Serious Crime Template downloaded to the local district shared drive for use during investigation
• Report to the 2IC to receive a briefing, tasking, establishing what information is and is not discoverable, ans o going supervision

Question 6

What requirements are required to be established as file manager to ensure investigation HQ is adequately set up?

Answer 6

• location
• officer support staff
• transport
• equipment
• communications
• ICT Requirements