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Registered Intermediaries

Answer

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

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

115925

Session

2024-26

Grouped for answer

Yes

Subjects

Registered intermediaries

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk