April's coronavirus review findings
The findings of the CPS review for completed prosecutions in April under the Coronavirus Act and Health Protection Regulations – and a running total for all cases since March 2020 – are detailed in the table below.
| Number of cases finalised (April 2021 and since March 2020) | No. of cases incorrectly charged (April 2021) | Total no. of cases incorrectly charged (since March 2020) | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) Regulations: 163 cases Overall total: 1714 cases | Withdrawn | 33 | Withdrawn | 251 |
| Returned to CPS local Areas | 13 | Returned to CPS local Areas | 61 | |
| Not guilty | 0 | Not guilty | 2 | |
| Other | 0 | Other | 11 | |
| Total | 46 | Total | 325 | |
Coronavirus Act: 7 cases
Overall total: 277 cases | Withdrawn | 5 | Withdrawn | 227 |
| Returned to CPS area | 2 | Returned to CPS area | 45 | |
| Other | 0 | Other | 5 | |
Total | 7 | Total | 277 | |
Of the 170 cases reviewed in April, all but one was charged by police.
Gregor McGill, CPS Director of Legal Services, said: “We remain committed to reviewing all of these cases for as long as necessary to ensure the right people are charged with the right offences.”
Notes to editors
• The CPS is manually reviewing all finalised prosecutions - i.e. where the case has been sentenced or proceedings stopped - for all cases under the Coronavirus Act and every case where a defendant has pleaded not guilty under the Regulations.
• CPS management information is derived from the CPS case management system, and as with any large-scale recording system, data are subject to possible errors in entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded and quality assured by the CPS. This means that cumulative figures may not always match the sum of historic monthly published figures.
• Our data cover the number of offences rather than individual defendants. Official criminal justice outcome statistics are kept by the Ministry of Justice.