Question to the Attorney General:

To ask the Attorney General, how many open cases the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has closed due to the CPS sending queries to those that had submitted the case, but receiving no response in the allotted time, in (a) 2018, (b) 2019, (c) 2020 and (d) 2021.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) may close cases at the pre-charge stage as ‘pending response – further investigation’ for a number of reasons, which are not limited to queries about submitted cases. The reasons could include, for example, that the suspect had died. However, it is not possible to distinguish in the CPS figures between the reasons.

Closing a case that is pending response for further investigation is known as an ‘administrative finalisation’, not a legal decision, and may not be the end of the case. The table below shows the numbers finalised pending response for further investigation, excluding submissions for early advice (EA), per calendar year.

*In line with the CPS publication policy the 2021 figure covers January – March 2021.