The head of the CPS has apologised again after nearly 50 sex case prosecutions were stopped because vital evidence was withheld from defence lawyers.

A nation-wide review was launched earlier this year after a series of rape cases collapsed in quick succession when it emerged that police and prosecutors had failed to pass key information to lawyers representing the men accused.

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) revealed today that issues with disclosure have now been identified in 47 cases in England and Wales following a review in January and February.

Alison Saunders, whose controversy-dogged time at the CPS is due to end in October, apologised for her organisation's failings when she was grilled by MPs on the Justice Committee today.

CPS chief Alison Saunders accepted her organisation has been 'reacting too late' to issues when she was grilled by MPs on the Justice Committee

The committee's chairman Robert Neill MP told her: 'You've been director since 2013. Since 2013 the Lord Leveson review of efficiency said that there was a major issue of failure to meet disclosure deadlines for both the police in the CPS.

'Mr Horwell QC 2017 it was said that disclosure problems have blighted the criminal justice system for too long and the joint inspectorate report alerted to extensive issues and they said it's nothing new.

'What has happened on your watch? Why did it take high profile cases for it to get some attention?'

Ms Saunders insisted disclosure of evidence was not only a problem during her time as director, but admitted: 'I would accept now that we've been reacting too late in the process.'

She added: 'I feel every single failure. It's not something that we want. We have been very clear about where our failings are. We will apologise for those.'

Richard Holden, the parliamentary aide cleared of sexual assault in the most recent case to come under fire, said the prosecutions stopped are the 'tip of the iceberg'. He is pictured with his girlfriend Charlotte Ivers

The stopped cases revealed today included five where disclosure was the primary reason why the case had to be stopped.

In the remaining 42 cases there were additional reasons including communications data such as text messages, emails and social media being examined too late; or new evidence emerging after charge.

A total of 14 defendants were being held in custody at the time the decision was made to stop their cases.

It comes amid growing anger over a failure to divulge potentially crucial information to defence lawyers ahead of trials.

In December and January a string of rape cases collapsed when it emerged that vital evidence had not been handed over.

The trial of Liam Allan was halted at Croydon Crown Court on December 14, and the prosecution of Isaac Itiary collapsed at Inner London Crown Court a few days later.

The following month the case against Samson Makele, 28, was halted at Snaresbrook Crown Court after his defence team unearthed key images from his mobile phone which had not previously been made available.

And Oxford student Oliver Mears, who had spent two years on bail, had the case against him dropped days before he was due to go on trial.

This sparked a national review by prosecutors of all live rape and serious sexual assault cases to see how many were affected by the same issues.

Other cases have been hit since the review began. Two weeks ago, parliamentary aide Richard Holden blasted an 'appalling' police investigation after he was cleared of groping a Westminster colleague.

Today, he insisted the cases stopped by the review were just the 'tip of the iceberg'.

Mr Holden tweeted: 'What about all the cases, like mine, where police just didn't pursue 'reasonable lines of inquiry' to get evidence?'

A review of ongoing sex cases was launched after cases against Liam Allan (left) and Isaac Itiary (right) collapsed. In Mr Allan's case, a computer disk containing 40,000 messages revealed the alleged victim had pestered him for 'casual sex'. In Mr Itiary's case, text messages proved a 15-year-old alleged rape victim repeatedly lied and said she was 19

Where were the sex cases halted? The issue of disclosure is affecting cases around the country, CPS figures reveal. Of the 47 stopped cases, two were in Wales, four in the East Midlands, 23 in London and four in Merseyside and Cheshire. A further two cases were in the North East, four were in the North West, three in the South West, two in the West Midlands and three in Yorkshire and Humberside. Advertisement

The CPS said a total of 3,637 were reviewed.

Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Prior, Disclosure Lead for the National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC), said: 'We've got to realise that this is about real people.

'Whether that is a person reporting a matter to us, whether it be a person as a witness, or whether it be somebody accused of an offence. That's incredibly traumatic, whatever aspect you look at.

'We've got to get disclosure right. We cannot allow mistakes to impact so greatly on people's lives as has been played out in the media over the past few months.

'Our whole criminal justice system is based on fairness - fairness of investigations, fair trials and we have to strive and provide that for all the people who come into the criminal justice system. We have got it wrong in too many cases.'

Gregor McGill, CPS director of legal services, refused to say if any lawyers are facing disciplinary action over the stopped cases, while Mr Prior said for officers or police staff it would be a matter for individual forces.

When asked about potential compensation claims, Mr McGill said 'Just because a case has been stopped doesn't necessarily mean that anyone is at fault'.

Collapsing trials and suicide: The blunders on Alison Saunders' watch THE DISCLOSURE CRISIS In 2014 Mrs Saunders promised to halt the decline in rape convictions. But four years on, all rape and serious sex assault cases are under review following the collapse of several high-profile prosecutions due to disclosure blunders. In the lead-up to criminal trials, police and prosecutors have a duty to disclose evidence that might either assist the defence case or undermine the prosecution's case. But in a series of recent cases, evidence has not been handed over. The crisis unfolded after the rape trial of criminology student Liam Allan, 22, was halted by a judge when it emerged his accuser had sent messages to friends about her rape fantasies. The number of prosecutions that have collapsed due to disclosure errors has soared by 70 per cent in the past two years. Yet Miss Saunders has insisted there is no one innocent in jail after being wrongly convicted because of mistakes in disclosure. THE RAPE CLAIM SUICIDE Eleanor de Freitas, 23, was devastated when the man she accused of sexual assault launched a prosecution against her for allegedly lying. Terrified at the prospect of intimate details of her personal life being picked over in court, the vulnerable graduate killed herself at her family home in Fulham, West London, in April 2014 – just three days before she was due to face a crown court. Miss de Freitas had accused wealthy Chelsea financier Alexander Economou, 35, of raping her just before Christmas 2012, but detectives decided not to proceed with the case. Mr Economou then brought a private prosecution against her for perverting justice. Mrs Saunders was forced to apologise after her decision not to prosecute Lord Janner was overturned LORD JANNER Mrs Saunders was forced to apologise after her decision not to prosecute Lord Janner was overturned. A report by High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques later found police and prosecutors missed three chances to charge Lord Janner over historic sex abuse claims after allegations first surfaced in 1991. In April 2015 the CPS announced that the peer should not be charged as he was suffering from dementia, but this was overturned by a review two months later. A judge then ruled that he was unfit to stand trial and instead ordered a 'trial of the facts' to be heard at the Old Bailey. These proceedings were dropped when he died in December 2015. Mrs Saunders has said it was 'a matter of sincere regret' the allegations were never heard by a jury. OPERATION ELVEDEN The £20million probe dubbed the 'biggest witch-hunt against journalists in memory' ended in failure as prosecutors failed to secure a single conviction in the largest investigation in criminal history. Operation Elveden saw 34 journalists and editors arrested over alleged payments to public officials and 29 were charged. But their cases were either dropped or they were cleared. Some of those accused had spent years on bail. Press Gazette editor Dominic Ponsford said that it was 'a shameful episode in the history of this country's criminal justice system'. But Mrs Saunders hit back saying: 'I'm not here to make popular decisions.' FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION In 2014, the DPP declared FGM a priority saying: 'We are very keen to make sure that wherever possible we are looking at FGM cases.' But last month prosecutors failed for the third time to secure Britain's first conviction for the offence as a lawyer was cleared at the Old Bailey of ordering his daughter be cut as punishment. Advertisement