What are concise statements and when are they suitable?
A. No statement should ever be unnecessarily long and rambling but should concentrate on the relevant facts to be proved. Many police statements provide unnecessary detail which is well known by all the end users of the information. For example, it is unnecessary to state that “Woolworths is a well known self service store at number 9, the High Street” An objective behind the streamlined process is to reduce statement taking by the police, but some statements are of course inevitable. So it is necessary for those taking statements to bear in mind that the bulk of the cases suitable for the streamlined process is volume, often low level, guilty plea cases where it is appropriate to consider at all stages the proportionality of the work and the products produced. Very few statements are required to be submitted with the Police Report for a likely guilty plea and the circumstances are clearly defined in the DPP’s Streamlined Process Guidance; a non police witness observed the crime or pro
