At court

Most witnesses who make formal statements don’t get to give evidence in court.  This will usually be because the suspect pleads guilty, the witness’s evidence is not disputed in which case it is read or summarised to the court, or because other scientific or witness evidence covers the same point.  It may also be because the suspect is not caught, the case is cleared up in some other way or the evidence is not strong enough (to find out more about how this may happen, see the CPS information on the Decision to Charge).

When the suspect is charged, you can expect to be contacted by the relevant Witness Care Unit which will liaise with you on dates and any arrangements or support you may need and on any special measures that may be needed to protect your identity.  Even though they wil be helpful, remember that the officer who took your statement or whose contact details are entered into your copy of the booklet you will have been given will still be your prime contact.

If you want to find out more about going to court and what it involves for witnesses, there’s an excellent official video. There’s also a less than excellent written guide. The Crown Prosecution Service also has helpful information on Going to Court.

For those witnesses who are going to court, Victim Support offers help and information for witnesses through its Witness Service.  There’s a Witness Service in each court and they can provide a friendly support, a practical guide and a quiet place to wait.  Their volunteers can also help with expenses claims but they are unable to give advice or talk about your evidence.  

While things are improving for witnesses who go to court, it is important that witnesses who do go to court realise that even then many of them will not actually have to take the stand and give their evidence: in 2007, 39% of all civilian witnesses (both victims and independent witnesses) who attended court did not actually get to give their evidence.  In our policy work, we will be considering ways this problem and the frustration it causes the public can be addressed in practice.  A promising solution is to allow a witness' evidence that has been taken on video or digitally to be their main evidence in court and so they will only need to attend court if there are further questions they need to be asked.  At present, this option is only available to certain categories of witnesses, such as vulnerable and young people and we see no reason why it shold not be more generally available.  In our Timeline, and with your support, we can see these change happening in a couple of years.