"Lost, damaged or missing evidence" -> 30k prosecutions dropped

[pontefractals]

I heard this on the news this morning and I'm horrified but not surprised. The cases included murders and rapes and I really wish we could see the breakdown of the nature of the cases cross-referenced with the nature of the "loss". Entirely unsurprisingly:
"The BBC study found around one in 20 prosecutions by the Met had been dropped as a result of missing evidence between 2020 and 2024.
By comparison around one in 50 were dropped across England and Wales.
The Met said the number included situations where police could not find an expert witness or were not able to obtain a required medical statement and to suggest it was simply down to lost evidence was misleading."

Isn't it convenient that the same coding covers both types of situations...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3e5289d3njo

I'll be keeping an eye out for this:
"The results of a consultation by the Law Commission, which proposed re-establishing a national forensic service and making the mishandling of evidence a criminal offence in some circumstances, are set to go before Parliament next week."
I don't understand why mishandling evidence isn't ALREADY a criminal offence in some circumstances, tbh?

The public repeatedly voted to defund the police and other public’s services.
This is what you get. Evidence Stores managers and exhibits officers are hopelessly overworked and serious human errors are the result.