Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 6
6
Deferred
Paragraph: 23
High-quality data is essential for MoJ to determine court capacity and predict caseloads.
Conclusion
Improving the quality of data in the justice system will help the MoJ to determine whether the courts have the capacity they need to deal with cases in a timely fashion. The Government needs to have access to high-quality data in order to be able predict how the number of cases are likely to change and to be able to analyse the ability of the courts to process cases.
Government Response Summary
The government deflected the recommendation regarding improving data quality for court capacity analysis, instead committing an extra £477 million to the Criminal Justice system over three years to reduce the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 cases by March 2025.
Paragraph Reference:
23
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
While trial disposals take up the majority of Crown Court time, they only represent a minority of total disposals – the total figure includes cases for trial where the defendant pleads guilty or the case is dropped by the prosecution, committals for sentence from the magistrates’ courts, and appeals against magistrates’ decisions. The balance of types of cases in the outstanding caseload has changed over the last two years, as some jury trials were particularly difficult to schedule. This change in case mix will therefore change the time taken to dispose of the same number of cases, as jury trials take more hearing time to dispose of than other types of cases. Over the next three financial years, we are investing an extra £477 million for the Criminal Justice system to help improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the Crown Court backlog to an estimated 53,000 cases by March 2025. Our plan of action includes removing the limit on Crown Court sitting days in 2021/22, expanding our plans for judicial recruitment to secure enough capacity to sit at the required levels in 2022/2023 and beyond, and extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from maximum 6 to 12 months’ imprisonment for a single Triable Either Way offence to allow us to bring criminals to justice more quickly and relieve some of the strain on the Crown Court. These measures will allow us to reduce the backlog more quickly, ensuring offenders are brought to justice faster and reducing waiting times for victims and witnesses.