The CCRC has established a Thematic Opportunities Group to support our core purpose of finding, investigating and referring to the appeal courts possible miscarriage of justice.
The group identifies common issues and themes that might give rise to miscarriages of justice and therefore represent an opportunity for further investigation.
The group also oversees ‘trawls’ of closed cases, examining the CCRC’s records to identify cases which may be affected by a particular issue (for example, a discredited expert witness or a new scientific method).
On this page you can find information about ongoing special projects that have resulted from the CCRC’s thematic initiatives.
Forensic Opportunities Programme
Our Forensic Opportunities Programme was set up in 2024 to identify closed murder or rape cases (with a pre 2016 date of conviction) whereby the identity of the offender was an issue.
The FOP team review relevant cases to assess whether advances in forensic science and/or any other investigative opportunities might assist the applicant.
The FOP is split into three phases:
Phase 1: Triage and identify
Phase 2: Review, investigate and assess
Phase 3: Re-open in light of new evidence
Post Office ‘Pre-Horizon’ Cases
Following the CCRC’s reviews of cases involving the Post Office’s flawed accounting software Horizon, the CCRC is investigating convictions that resulted from predecessors to that software.
Before the Post Office (Horizon System) Offences Act came into being, the CCRC had already referred over 75 Horizon cases to the relevant appeal court. This Act resulted in the quashing of Horizon-related convictions, where specific conditions in the Act were met.
The CCRC is now in the process of looking at pre-Horizon cases, and has made its first referral of a pre-Horizon case related to the IT system ‘Capture.’
You can view our Post Office page for the latest updates.
IPP and DPP Sentences
This project re-examines historic applications to review Detention for Public Protection (DPP) and Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP) sentences imposed on children and young adults. IPPs and DPs were indeterminate sentences
This follows two Court of Appeal decisions to quash IPP sentences because the sentencing judge had failed to attach the necessary importance to the age and maturity of the offender before giving the sentence.
The Thematic Opportunities Group (TOG) has begun a trawl of historic applications to ensure that any which applications which may benefit from the judgements are looked at again.