Criminal Cases Review Commission told to urgently improve after Malkinson failings

The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) must urgently improve its investigations to avoid a repeat of failings such as those in the Andrew Malkinson scandal, a watchdog has found.Anthony Rogers, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service, delivered the warning after carrying out an independent inspection of casework by the body that investigates potential miscarriages of justice.The CCRC has been heavily criticised for its handling of the Malkinson case, one of the worst miscarriages of justice in British legal history. Its chief executive and chair resigned in the fallout and the former victims’ commissioner Dame Vera Baird was drafted in as interim chair to overhaul the organisation.In a report released on Thursday, the watchdog said the “lack of proactive, effective casework quality assurance is a significant gap that the CCRC must address urgently”.Watchdog staff examined a sample of 60 cases and made 34 recommendations to tackle a string of “weaknesses”, delays and inefficiencies.Rogers told reporters the CCRC could “improve substantially and deliver a much better service” by bringing in the recommendations, but changes “won’t guarantee there won’t be another high-profile failure”.With a focus on “quality and review of casework, better case strategy, much more monitoring of case progress, challenging unnecessary work, then cases in the CCRC should not get to the position of the Andrew Malkinson case,” he said.Malkinson served 17 years in prison for a rape he did not commit and was knocked back twice by the CCRC until his legal team carried out crucial DNA testing that was then repeated by the commission and led to his release.A review found he could have been released 10 years earlier if the CCRC had obtained new DNA evidence as early as 2009. Thousands of cases are being reviewed after the bungled handling of the case.The real rapist, Paul Quinn, was handed a 21-year prison sentence last month.According to the inspection report, the CCRC is dealing with 102 long-running cases and has seen a “sustained rise” in the number of applications over the last few years, with 1,841 made in 2025-26.Rogers described the body as having a “chequered history” and “cultural issues”, but said ultimately it was fit for purpose.Staff were committed to their work and made “sound conclusions” on cases, but needed to avoid “unnecessary lines of inquiry” and pursuing “investigatory routes that are nugatory”, and instead focus on probing “the right things”.He said: “There have been a number of very high-profile failures, which have led to a lot of criticism, but generally I think the CCRC, and in the cases we looked at, got the decision right eventually, and it’s the ‘eventually’ word that we are concerned about.“I do think there are cultural issues in the organisation. Overall our judgment is they are not a failing organisation. There are quite a lot of things they need to do but ultimately they are fit for purpose,” he said.