A discredited CCRC with an unreformed referral test and no external oversight

The Criminal Cases Review Commission is the sole gateway for post-appeal review of convictions, and it is in institutional collapse: chair Helen Pitcher resigned in January 2025 after an independent panel's findings on the Malkinson case; the Henley review found systemic failure; the Justice Committee's 2025 report ('Leadership of the CCRC') found leadership 'unable to learn from its own mistakes' and demanded root-and-branch reform. The government response so far amounts to an interim chair tasked with an operational review and agreement to pre-appointment scrutiny of future chairs. The statutory 'real possibility' test, which forces the CCRC to second-guess the Court of Appeal rather than judge the case itself, remains unchanged, and no inspectorate covers the CCRC (a one-off HMCPSI-style inspection was criticised as limited). The Law Commission proposes replacing the test and creating independent inspection; legislation is not promised.

Every wrongful conviction that stays unreferred compounds injustice and leaves real perpetrators unpursued. The Malkinson case showed the CCRC declining to test DNA that later exonerated him. Without test reform and standing oversight, the same failure mode persists, with no institution empowered to detect it.

A Criminal Appeals Act implementing the Law Commission package: a reformed referral test focused on the CCRC's own view of the conviction's safety, statutory independence safeguards, an independent inspectorate covering the CCRC, and resourcing tied to caseload, plus Justice Committee pre-appointment scrutiny of the chair (already conceded) made statutory.

// State-led: Instrument: Criminal Appeals Act implementing the Law Commission package (reformed referral test, independent inspectorate, statutory safeguards).

the sole post-appeal gateway is in documented collapse with an unchanged referral test and no external oversight, though its immediate crisis is already under interim review.