UK Edition
Judges to sit for thousands of extra days in bid to reduce court delays, Lord Chancellor announces
Lord Chancellor commits judges to sitting on 4,500 extra days to counter delays and help clear a backlog
Judges are to sit for thousands of extra days in a bid by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to reduce court delays that have seen victims waiting up to three years for justice.
Robert Buckland, the Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, is to commit judges to an extra 4,500 sitting days for 2020/21 to counter delays in bringing criminals to trial that The Daily Telegraph revealed last month had increased by more than a third in a decade.
An investigation by this newspaper also found restrictions on the number of sitting days meant that up to 40 per cent of crown courts are standing idle on any given day including the Old Bailey even though there is a backlog of more than 30,000 crown court cases.
This weekend The Telegraph revealed that more than 40 per cent of victims of violent crime and rape pulled out of prosecutions last year partly due to the delays in bringing their cases to court. It was also disclosed that rape victims are on average being forced to wait more than two and a half years.
Mr Buckland told The Daily Telegraph that he was now allocating a minimum of 87,000 crown court sitting days for 2020/21, up from 82,000 last year to help cope with more cases coming to court and to help reduce the backlog.
It is estimated it will cost at least £12 million, based on the average based on a Law Society analysis that an average day of court time costs £2,692. It comes on top of an additional 850 sitting days added for the rest of 2019/20.
“The Government is committed to ensuring justice is served in a timely fashion,” said Mr Buckland, who pointed to a 40 per cent reduction in the number of outstanding crown court cases by almost 40 per cent since 2014.
The move reverses a decision last year by the MoJ to cut the number of days on which it will fund judges to sit by more than 15 per cent, from 97,400 to 82,300, because of a slump in cases coming before courts.
The Telegraph revealed last month that it had resulted in between 25 per cent and 40 per cent of courts sitting empty despite a backlog which meant delays of up to two and a half years in cases coming to court.
Senior barristers have complained that cases have collapsed as a result of the delay, while other criminals have been spared jail by judges because of the length of time it took to come to court.
Jonathan Dunne, a criminal barrister who has campaigned on delays and idle courts, welcomed the move as a “step in the right direction.” “It is not going to cure the problem completely but it is welcome news,” he said.
Last month Martin McNair-Templeton, 23, who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl avoided prison after backlogs meant his case took over two years to come before the courts.
And in August three men who left a former employee with serious injuries in a late night assault were spared jail by Judge Simon Carr after their trial was delayed for two years. He said the legal system was “beyond the point of collapse.”