John Taggart at Queens University Belfast
The Intermediary in the Criminal Justice System was published by Routledge in July 2025.
What is the book about?
Put simply, the book is about the role of the intermediary in the criminal justice system. The intermediary role was introduced in England and Wales via the s.29 of the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and its main function is to ‘facilitate communication’ between vulnerable individuals (witnesses and defendants) and the criminal justice system. The role has since been introduced in other countries including Australia, New Zealand and Chile. The key features of these international models are included in the beginning of the book. The book also examines the intermediary role from an international perspective with reference to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC).
The book is grounded in a series of semi-structured interviews with intermediaries and judges in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. It looks beyond the wording of the legislation and relevant procedural guidance to develop a ‘thick’ understanding of what the intermediary role involves at the coalface. It explores who intermediaries are, what they do and the challenges encountered by those who perform the role. Crucially, it also explores how the role is perceived by criminal justice professionals and the extent to which it has gained legitimacy/acceptance in the criminal justice system. The book also informs how we think about the adversarial process more broadly and how the competing interests/rights of witnesses and defendants are reconciled.
Why did I write it?
I was working as a pupil barrister in Northern Ireland in 2013 when the role was introduced by the Department of Justice on a pilot basis. I was intrigued by what the role involved and how it might impact my work as a barrister as my career developed. It was only when I transferred to the Bar of England and Wales in 2015 did I see the role in practice. It surprised me how little anyone knew about the role or what it was supposed to do. In both magistrates’ courts and Crown Courts there seemed to be a level of bemusement at times about what this ‘outsider’ contributed to the process. I decided to apply to the LSE to undertake doctoral research to investigate the role further. The book emerges from the findings of my doctoral thesis.
How did I go about doing this research and what further work is needed in this field?
From the outset, I knew I wanted to speak to intermediaries themselves about the role. I manged to generate a good sample of intermediaries both in England and Wales and Northern Ireland. I was adamant that judges would provide important insights into the role, although the Judicial College refused my application. Instead, I managed to interview judges in Northern Ireland (both District Judges in the magistrates’ court and Crown Court judges). Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to speak to any lawyers although their views do emerge indirectly throughout the book.
The research was fundamentally steered by a grounded theory methodology that helped keep me ‘close’ to the data and remain open-minded about possible leads. Based on my reading of the existing literature (which at that stage was scant), I started the project with a focus on the inequality in intermediary provision between witnesses and defendants. While this theme does feature prominently in the book, many other themes emerged organically, some of which truly surprised me. For example, how intermediaries negotiate their ‘neutrality’ and how this in turn shapes many other aspects of the role features heavily in the book. As such, one the key aspects of my research strategy was to trust the interview data and allow themes and patterns to emerge inductively.
I am currently engaged in empirical research exploring the intermediary role at the investigative/police custody stage. The intermediary has traditionally been depicted as court-based role, but my early findings point to the importance of identifying vulnerability early and ensuring vulnerable individuals are enabled to effectively participate. There is also an urgent need for research examining the impact of the intermediary role on the quality of evidence. This enquiry should consider the extent to which intermediary assistance impacts the production of ‘best evidence’ in terms of its ‘completeness, coherence and accuracy’ (as per the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999).