Registered Intermediaries
(asked on 25th February 2026) - View Source
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many and what proportion of vulnerable (a) victims and (b) witnesses assessed as requiring a registered intermediary under the Witness Intermediary Scheme were allocated one in each of the last three years; and how many requests were (i) refused and (ii) delayed due to availability constraints.
The table below sets out the proportion of requests for a registered intermediary that were successfully matched, as well as those that could not be matched, were cancelled by the police or CPS, or where matching was still in progress at the end of the calendar year. This is broken down for victims, prosecution witnesses and defence witnesses for the calendar years 2022-2024 (the most recent years for which published data is available through the Witness Intermediary Scheme annual report):
Year | Allocation status | Defence Witness | Prosecution Witness | Victim | Total |
2022 | Matched | 3 (100%) | 733 (95.2%) | 7,018 (95.5%) | 7,754 (95.4%) |
Unmatched |
| 16 (2%) | 179 (2.4%) | 195 (2.4%) | |
Cancelled |
| 21 (2.7%) | 151 (2.1%) | 172 (2.1%) | |
In Progress |
|
| 4 (0.1%) | 4 (0%) | |
Total | 3 | 770 | 7,352 | 8,125 | |
2023 | Matched | 1 (100.0%) | 678 (94.4%) | 8,077 (94.8%) | 8,756 (94.8%) |
Unmatched |
| 19 (2.6%) | 182 (2.1%) | 201 (2.2%) | |
Cancelled |
| 19 (2.6%) | 183 (2.1%) | 202 (2.2%) | |
In Progress |
| 2 (0.3%) | 79 (0.9%) | 81 (0.9%) | |
Total | 1 | 718 | 8,521 | 9,240 | |
2024 | Matched | 4 (100.0%) | 554 (93.3%) | 8,789 (96.0%) | 9,347 (95.8%) |
Unmatched |
| 10 (1.7%) | 130 (1.4%) | 140 (1.4%) | |
Cancelled |
| 20 (3.4%) | 164 (1.8%) | 184 (1.9%) | |
In Progress |
| 10 (1.7%) | 72 (0.8%) | 82 (0.8%) | |
Total | 4 | 594 | 9,155 | 9,753 |
Unmatched cases include those where:
- A Registered Intermediary (RI) could not be assigned to a case because the Witness Intermediary Team could not provide a RI within the timeframe specified by the end user,
- A RI initially accepted the case but then withdrew,
- the court agreed to adjourn a case and a new request reflecting the new trial date was generated.
Therefore, not all unmatched requests indicate that the individual did not have a RI for their case.
The National Crime Agency, who administer the Witness Intermediary Scheme on behalf of the Ministry of Justice does not collect waiting times between the making of a request for a Registered Intermediary, so no data is available on the number of cases that were delayed due to capacity constraints.
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the waiting time between the request for a registered intermediary and matching of the intermediary. The allocation of a Registered Intermediary in each case will be dependent on a number of requirements including the availability of the witness and the investigation officer as well the availability and skillset of the registered intermediary. Where a case is flagged as urgent, the National Crime Agency will endeavour to prioritise the case, including seeking registered intermediary support out of hours or at the weekend.
The Ministry of Justice recruits and trains Registered Intermediaries on an ongoing basis to meet growing demand. These are informed by annual gap analyses to ascertain where demand is growing. In the 3 years to 2024, we have recruited 88 additional RIs to the Scheme.
The table below sets out the rate at which requests for a Registered Intermediary (from both the police and CPS) in each police force area were matched in 2024. We do not hold data on waiting times for intermediaries. We also do not hold data broken down by Crown Court circuit.
Police Force Area | Cancelled | Matched | Unmatched | Total |
Avon & Somerset | 1 (0.6%) | 173 (97.7%) | 3.0 (1.7%) | 177 |
Bedfordshire | 1 (1.5%) | 66 (97.1%) | 1.0 (1.5%) | 68 |
Cambridgeshire | 2 (1.4%) | 139 (94.6%) | 6.0 (4.1%) | 147 |
Cheshire | 5 (3.3%) | 145 (96.7%) | 0.0 (0%) | 150 |
Cleveland | 6 (5.4%) | 102 (91.9%) | 3.0 (2.7%) | 111 |
Cumbria | 2 (3.4%) | 56 (94.9%) | 1.0 (1.7%) | 59 |
Derbyshire | 2 (0.7%) | 294 (98.0%) | 4.0 (1.3%) | 300 |
Devon & Cornwall | 12 (2.5%) | 450 (95.3%) | 10.0 (2.1%) | 472 |
Dorset | 1 (0.6%) | 171 (97.7%) | 3.0 (1.7%) | 175 |
Durham | 5 (2.3%) | 213 (95.9%) | 4.0 (1.8%) | 222 |
Dyfed-Powys | 1 (1.4%) | 69 (98.6%) | 0.0 (0%) | 70 |
Essex | 5 (2.0%) | 234 (95.9%) | 5.0 (2.0%) | 244 |
Gloucestershire | 3 (2.2%) | 129 (96.3%) | 2.0 (1.5%) | 134 |
Greater Manchester | 6 (2.7%) | 214 (96.4%) | 2.0 (0.9%) | 222 |
Gwent | 2 (1.3%) | 148 (95.5%) | 5.0 (3.2%) | 155 |
Hampshire | 5 (1.5%) | 318 (96.7%) | 6.0 (1.8%) | 329 |
Hertfordshire | 1 (1.5%) | 66 (97.1%) | 1.0 (1.5%) | 68 |
Humberside | 3 (1.9%) | 152 (98.1%) | 0.0 (0%) | 155 |
Kent | 7 (1.6%) | 421 (96.8%) | 7.0 (1.6%) | 435 |
Lancashire | 0.0 (0%) | 251 (99.2%) | 2 (0.8%) | 253 |
Leicestershire | 3 (2.1%) | 137 (95.1%) | 4.0 (2.8%) | 144 |
Lincolnshire | 7 (4.1%) | 147 (86.5%) | 16.0 (9.4%) | 170 |
London | 21 (2.6%) | 769 (95.4%) | 16.0 (2.0%) | 806 |
Merseyside | 3 (1.1%) | 258 (97.7%) | 3.0 (1.1%) | 264 |
Norfolk | 9 (6.5%) | 119 (86.2%) | 10.0 (7.2%) | 138 |
North Wales | 4 (2.5%) | 154 (95.7%) | 3.0 (1.9%) | 161 |
North Yorkshire | 4 (2.0%) | 193 (98.0%) | 0.0 (0%) | 197 |
Northamptonshire | 4 (2.6%) | 149 (96.1%) | 2.0 (1.3%) | 155 |
Northumbria | 10 (3.0%) | 321 (96.1%) | 3.0 (0.9%) | 334 |
Nottinghamshire | 7 (2.9%) | 227 (94.6%) | 6.0 (2.5%) | 240 |
South Wales | 2 (0.6%) | 306 (96.2%) | 10.0 (3.1%) | 318 |
South Yorkshire | 3 (1.0%) | 303 (99.0%) | 0.0 (0%) | 306 |
Staffordshire | 6 (1.8%) | 319 (97.0%) | 4.0 (1.2%) | 329 |
Suffolk | 3 (2.4%) | 118 (95.9%) | 2.0 (1.6%) | 123 |
Surrey | 2 (1.2%) | 155 (96.9%) | 3.0 (1.9%) | 160 |
Sussex | 8 (3.1%) | 246 (96.1%) | 2.0 (0.8%) | 256 |
Thames Valley | 5 (2.1%) | 234 (96.7%) | 3.0 (1.2%) | 242 |
Warwickshire | 3 (3.9%) | 73 (96.1%) | 0.0 (0%) | 76 |
West Mercia | 7 (2.3%) | 285 (95.6%) | 6.0 (2.0%) | 298 |
West Midlands | 13 (2.1%) | 602 (96.8%) | 7.0 (1.1%) | 622 |
West Yorkshire | 3 (0.8%) | 377 (98.7%) | 2.0 (0.5%) | 382 |
Wiltshire | 1 (1.2%) | 83 (96.5%) | 2.0 (2.3%) | 86 |
Total | 198 (2%) | 9,386 (96.2%) | 169 (1.7%) | 9,753 |