The police force covering Leicestershire and Rutland is one of the worst performing when it comes to criminal cases collapsing, a BBC investigation has found.

Of 14,551 cases handed to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) by Leicestershire Police between October 2022 and September last year, 384 were dropped due to lost or missing evidence.

This equates to 2.6 per cent of all cases, making the Leicestershire force third only to the Metropolitan Police and the City of London forces, which saw rates of 4.2 per cent and 3.2 per cent respectively.

The figures are part of a nationwide investigation of all UK police forces by the BBC's Shared Data Unit, which found that in the past three years 30,000 cases, including some of the most serious offences, have been dropped due to lost or missing evidence issues.

In response to the investigation, Leicestershire and Rutland's police and crime commissioner, Rupert Matthews, has said he will be discussing the matter with the chief constable to identify a solution.

The data was revealed following a freedom of information request to the CPS, which asked for details of any cases that did not proceed because key evidence was not available or missing. When this is the fault of the police force, it is recorded as an 'E72' in CPS data.

An E72 can comprise a number of scenarios, such as:

• Physical evidence, including forensics, being lost, damaged or contaminated during the storage phase
• Digital evidence, such as victim interview footage or body camera footage, being lost during the storage phase
• Witness statements or pathology reports not being made available by police
• Key evidence not gathered from the crime scene.

Image: Leicestershire Police

A spokesperson for the Leicestershire Force said: "Between October 2022 and September 2024, Leicestershire Police submitted more than 14,500 reports involving individual defendants to the Crown Prosecution Service. We acknowledge that less than three per cent of these cases involving defendants did not progress under code E72.

"The E72 category does not only cover 'lost' evidence. It can include evidence that is not available or is missing.

"Examples of this can include statements, expert witnesses, medical and forensic evidence. A defendant could be charged on the basis that certain evidence is required for the trial but may not be available. An example of this could be that an expert witness is not located or is not available to give evidence in front of a jury.

"Other examples can include a medical statement not being available or evidence destroyed by third parties.

"The CPS provides the force with a list of cases involving defendants that did not progress under code E72 on a monthly basis and these are subject to an internal review.

"Leicestershire Police works closely with the CPS to ensure evidence is gathered and presented as soon as possible. The force remains committed to investigating crimes reported in a full and thorough manner to honour our duty, protect our communities and bring offenders to justice."

Mr Matthews said: "At first glance these figures are disappointing, but having looked into the matter it would appear that there are a variety of reasons why cases did not progress. 

"This would seem to be more of a recording or categorisation issue, but I will be discussing the matter in some detail with the chief constable and Criminal Justice colleagues to try and identify a solution."

Professor Carole McCartney, a criminology lecturer at the University of Leicester, is an expert on evidence retention and author of 'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone': Police retention of investigative materials.

She said that, although funding for police forces has increased in recent years, many were still reporting large budget deficits. Earlier this year, the Met, the largest force in the UK, said it would need to find a further £260million to plug a budget gap.

"All this is a resourcing issue," she said. "Just look at gun stores – you wouldn't believe the amount of guns the police are storing, never mind all the other weapons.

"I've been in warehouses full of motorbikes, scaffolding poles, and things that are seized and have to be retained. I've seen a four-poster bed in a storage place.

"It's just mind-boggling what the police have to store. This all takes a lot of organisation, a lot of money, a lot of resourcing and an awful lot of technology to keep track of all of this. 

"But it doesn't attract any particular attention or resourcing."