Prosecutions are at risk of not going ahead even if fast-track plans to allow witnesses anonymity in court are approved, the Director of Public Prosecutions said yesterday.

Sir Ken Macdonald, QC, told MPs and peers that plans now going through Parliament to define when anonymity can be granted would lead to some prosecutions not being able to proceed as before.

The head of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “It is clear that one effect of this Bill means that there will be fewer applications for anonymity than there have been in the past.”

The defendant whose double murder conviction triggered the row over granting anonymity to prosecution witnesses is to have a retrial, the Court of Appeal ruled yesterday.

Iain Davis was jailed for life in 2004 for shooting two men at a party in East London. His case was at the centre of a ruling that defendants had a right to confront their accusers.

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