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Why is Disclosure Important?
USED MATERIAL
An efficient and properly conducted system of disclosure in criminal cases is fundamental to a fair system of criminal justice. When a case is being investigated, the police or other investigating authority will carry out a number of inquiries. Depending on the nature of the case, witnesses will be spoken to, physical evidence will be gathered and subjected to scientific testing, for example, fingerprints, DNA. Documents will be collected and examined, computers and mobile phones will be seized and interrogated, video evidence will be viewed, social media accounts will be accessed and information recovered. From this material, the prosecution will produce its case and this will be served on the defence as the case against the accused. This is referred to as the used material since it contains that material which the prosecution seek to rely upon to prove its case. 

UNUSED MATERIAL
But what of all the other material? This is the unused material. What if there is information gathered during the investigation, which calls into question the case against the suspect, material which if revealed to the defence and relied on in court, might make the difference between a verdict of guilty and a verdict of not guilty. This is what the rules on disclosure are all about and why they are so important, because the investigator authorities not only have access to the material which demonstrates guilt, but may also have accessed material which demonstrates innocence. For the prosecution simply to keep the information which is helpful to the accused to itself would lead to a jury not being able to consider all relevant evidence in a case and therefore to any conviction which resulted being considered unsafe. 

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