Peters & Peters Senior Partner Michael O’Kane spoke to The Times following widespread debate about the Serious Fraud Office’s use of outsourcing in major cases, especially over a recent report that the SFO was to outsource the disclosure process in the prosecution of G4S after an eight-year investigation into the private security company.

Michael O’Kane told The Times  “In essence the SFO has been outsourcing disclosure for some years now by bringing in swathes of junior barristers to conduct the disclosure review.”

He added that “the problem is much less about who does it and much more about how it is done. It is essential that those applying the disclosure test to the material in the SFO’s possession are fully and correctly briefed on both the prosecution and the defence case, that a consistent approach is instilled to disclosure decisions and that there is effective management of the process.”