If the public is to get the fair, efficient and timely justice they deserve, there must be sustained investment in all parts of the crisis-hit criminal justice system, the Law Society of England and Wales has warned.
Law Society president Richard Atkinson said that a review into reform of the criminal courts led by Sir Brian Leveson is a step in the right direction to tackling the crisis in our courts, where there are record backlogs. He added:
“However, any review must also aim for effective and fair justice, not just efficiency. Removing appeal rights and eroding the fundamental right of jury trial by your peers for serious offences are major constitutional changes which require careful consideration.
Nor are we convinced that intermediate courts are the silver bullet to solve the backlogs. They will take considerable time and resource to introduce and may severely impact other parts of the system. If there are the personnel, physical and financial resources available we think they may be better of being invested in the existing court structure immediately.
Investment across the whole system is the only way to get cases moving again and begin to make progress in cutting the backlog. The criminal justice system does not currently have the capacity, in terms of Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), defence lawyers or prison places to run Crown Court trials more speedily. There is no guarantee that an intermediate tier would successfully address any of these capacity issues and it could push the backlog and delays into other areas.
The Crown Courts also deal with only around 5% of all criminal cases and this measure would not address the rapidly increasing backlog in the magistrates’ courts where most cases take place.”
He said that the crisis can only be dealt with by sustained investment and long-term measures which take all parts of the criminal justice system – police, prosecution, courts, prisons, probation and legal aid, which is a vital public service – into account. New figures published by the Ministry of Justice show:
- the Crown Court backlog reaching a record high 73,105 by the end of September 2024, 10% higher than September 2023 (66,426 cases).
- 16,505 of those Crown Court cases have been outstanding for a year or more.
- the magistrates’ court backlog increased by 22% on the previous quarter to 333,349 at the end of September 2024
