An injured person's statement should only be sent to the defence, if it is served for the purposes of s 9 CJA 1967 or is included in a committal bundle. Care should be taken not to prejudice any civil proceedings, wherever possible.
Statement helpful to the defence
If you have taken a statement from a person you know can give material evidence helpful to the accused, but decide not to call that person as a witness, you are under a duty to tell the defence about the witness.1
Similarly, if you take a statement from a person and decide that the person is not a "witness of truth" and would seek to depart from, or contrive an explanation for his/her statement if called as a witness for the defence, you are under a duty to give details (amounting to more than merely the name and address of the witness) to the defence.2
You should normally send such witness statements to the defence, but if you think there is a good reason for not sending the statement to the defence, you should seek advice from Legal Adviser’s Office
Footnotes
R v Leyland Justices, ex parte Hawthorn [1979] 1 All ER 204.
