内容摘要："With the topic of migration now politicised, you increasingly see supposedly liberal countries that are signatories to international conventions, like human rights law, coming back on those conventions because the legislation no longer fits the political agenda of the moment," says Ms Wolff.

"With the topic of migration now politicised, you increasingly see supposedly liberal countries that are signatories to international conventions, like human rights law, coming back on those conventions because the legislation no longer fits the political agenda of the moment," says Ms Wolff.

A leading criminologist says the increase was largely "a resourcing issue" brought about by cuts to police forces throughout the 2010s.And ex-police officers told the BBC it was unsurprising and the amount of evidence they deal with is "overwhelming".

When police forces build cases around defendants they hand a file to the CPS.But when the CPS cannot proceed to trial because police do not have the necessary evidence needed to secure a conviction - they record it in their data as an "E72".The BBC, alongside the University of Leicester, managed to obtain Freedom of Information (FOI) requests showing the number of E72s recorded between 2020 and 2024 at police forces in England and Wales.

The figures obtained by the BBC do not break down why cases have collapsed.However, the data does suggest the number of cases recorded as an E72 are increasing, with a higher proportion of prosecutions failing to result in a conviction because of lost or missing evidence each year.

In 2020, a total of 7,484 prosecutions collapsed because of lost, missing or damaged evidence. In 2024, that had risen by 9%, to 8,180.

When Kiera was just nine years old she gave an interview on camera to Lancashire Police describing the harrowing details of the sexual abuse she had been subjected to over several years.A Birmingham City Council spokesperson said it had made a "fair and reasonable offer" and that it remained committed to resolving the dispute.

It added that it had urged the union to put that offer to its members.However, Ms Graham said: "After smearing these workers in public since January and telling them to accept a fair and reasonable offer that never existed, the council finally put a proposal in writing last week.

"True to form, the proposal came weeks late and was not in line with the ballpark offer discussed during Acas talks in May."- a point denied by the council.