The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999: achieving best evidence?

The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 (YJCEA) aims to help vulnerable and intimidated witnesses give the best evidence they can in criminal proceedings. This is to be achieved by allowing certain witnesses access to a range of special measures where it is felt that their evidence will thereby be improved. Reducing the stress associated with a court case will, it is hoped, mean that vulnerable witnesses are more confident and give better testimony. In addition, individuals who in the past would have been unable to participate in proceedings and were therefore considered incompetent to give evidence will now have a voice. The reasoning behind the YJCEA is clear. In cases of abuse in particular, the prosecution case is often based almost entirely on the evidence of one witness, often a child. It is important that what evidence there is in such situations is presented as well as possible. In the past, witnesses and complainants in criminal proceedings have not always been given the help they deserved when giving evidence. Over the years, many measures have been introduced to render the court process less intimidating, deriving mainly from the experiences of the judiciary in both criminal and family proceedings. These include familiarization visits, live-links and the like. The YJCEA will now bring many of these measures under one statutory roof. It is hoped, first, that this will encourage greater consistency in their application and, secondly, that criminal proceedings will be demystified for those that have to go through them. Many believe it is a step that is long overdue. Thus, vulnerable and intimidated witnesses, who might previously have been considered unable to give evidence in criminal proceedings, or at a disadvantage in giving evidence, will have a proper opportunity to do so. Such witnesses include the mentally and physically disabled, those in fear of intimidation such as the complainant of racial or domestic violence, and of course children. Rendering the court process less traumatic for those who have already been traumatized enough and maximizing the numbers of complainants and witnesses who can actually give evidence is commendable. However, the YJCEA also has its problems and as has been pointed out by Di Birch (2000) 'this is an Act which leaves us in no doubt where our sympathies lie'. The YJCEA is a complex Act that may well have a considerable impact on the way in which criminal proceedings in the UK are handled. I will consider the following areas: (i) interpretation; (ii) special measures and their application; and (iii) areas for concern.