The Director of Public Prosecutions' pilot scheme to give reasons for a decision not to prosecute, which was due to end in January, is likely to be extended.
In his annual report, Director James Hamilton says that because of the time lag between an offence being committed, its investigation, the submission of a file and the eventual decision, only a small number of requests for reasons have so far been received.
The report shows that a record 16,140 files were received by his office in 2008, the majority relating to criminal cases.
More than 11,000 criminal files were examined by the DPP's office in 2008.
A third were disposed of in the District Court, and another third were prosecuted in the Circuit or Central Criminal Court.
However, in 34% of cases, a decision was taken not to go ahead with a prosecution.
In 77% of these cases, this was because of insufficient evidence.
Pilot scheme
In October last year, the DPP began a pilot scheme to give reasons to families for decisions not to prosecute in cases where there was a death which took place on or after 22 October.
However, Mr Hamilton said it was only now that the office was beginning to receive requests for reasons.
He said it was likely the pilot scheme, which was due to end next month, would have to be extended. Mr Hamilton said so far the reaction had been overwhelmingly positive.
The next step would be to examine whether the scheme could be extended to other offences.
The report also shows that in 50% of cases directions are issued by the DPP's office within two weeks.
In 2007, 62% of cases sent to the Circuit or Central Criminal Courts resulted in convictions.
Of 47 applications to have sentences reviewed because of undue leniency heard last year, 30 were successful, 14 were refused and three were struck out.
