Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 13
13
Deferred
Paragraph: 43
Publish monthly Crown Court trial targets and a roadmap for outstanding case reduction.
Recommendation
The recovery in the Crown Court will depend on the ability of the courts to dispose of a significantly higher average number of trials each month. While we recognise the difficulties of setting prescriptive targets. While we recognise the difficulties of setting prescriptive targets, the Government should set out the number of Crown Court trials that will need to be disposed of each month in order to deliver the reduction in the number of outstanding cases to reach its target of 53,000 by March 2025, and complement this with a detailed roadmap for achieving this.
Government Response Summary
The government did not provide monthly Crown Court trial targets or a roadmap for reducing outstanding cases. Instead, it detailed the rollout of Section 28 for sexual and modern slavery offences, including monitoring its effects and publishing interim evaluation findings in the autumn.
Paragraph Reference:
43
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
It is important that we prioritise making section 28 available to support complainants of rape and serious sexual offences as quickly as possible. The Ministry of Justice continues to monitor data from the courts and discuss regularly with the judiciary and operational partners as we proceed with the rollout of section 28 for victims of sexual and modern slavery offences in all Crown Courts. As part of this monitoring activity, we are considering the effects on court recovery. We are also undertaking a process evaluation with victims and criminal justice practitioners who have used this provision, interim findings from which will help to inform rollout. We aim to publish the results of this in the autumn. The Criminal Courts—Listing in the Crown Court