Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 16
16
Deferred
Publish Crown Court forecasting models, detailed recovery plan and long-term capacity targets.
Recommendation
Whilst we welcome the opportunity to view the MoJ’s forecasting models, we recommend that the Government routinely publishes its models and publishes a detailed recovery plan that sets out how it plans to meet its target of reducing the number of outstanding cases to 53,000 by March 2025. We believe that this target is not ambitious enough to build the capacity of the Crown Court in the long-term. Reducing delays in the long-term will require a sustained increase in the resourcing of the Crown Court. The Government should therefore also set targets for increasing the physical, judicial and staff capacity of the Crown Court in order to be able to deliver at least 110,000 sitting days a year for the next five years. (Paragraph 56) Judicial capacity in the Crown Court
Government response summary AI-generated
The government did not address publishing forecasting models, a Crown Court recovery plan, or targets for increasing Crown Court capacity and sitting days. Instead, it described efforts and investments to streamline magistrate recruitment through a revised online process.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
Our plans for Crown Court recovery this year are based on running the system at the maximum possible level, given the constraints of physical and judicial capacity. Future years are subject to Spending Reviews and subsequent Concordat process. We have removed the limit on Crown Court sitting days in 2022/23, ensuring there is no funding constraint on Crown Court recovery. Over 60 Crown courtrooms previously unavailable due to the pandemic have been reopened and 22 Nightingale Crown courtrooms have been extended beyond March 2022. This means around 500 Crown courtrooms are now available for hearings and trials— higher than pre-pandemic levels. We are expanding our plans for judicial recruitment and are making use of fee-paid judges, including those sitting in retirement – for the second year in a row, we have increased the maximum number of sitting days for all crime Recorders from 30 to 80 days. We have also legislated to raise the statutory mandatory retirement age (MRA) from 70 to 75 for judicial office holders. We believe this is an ambitious plan that will reduce the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court in the fastest way possible and allow us to meet the demand resulting from having more police on our streets. A reduction in the caseload to 53,000 will represent significant progress towards driving down waiting times for victims of crime. It is also worth highlighting that there will always be outstanding cases as these figures include cases that are being prepared to be heard in the courts. Decisions about the allocation of sitting days are decided at future Spending Reviews and through the annual Concordat process between the Ministry of Justice and the Judiciary. The Criminal Courts—Judicial Capacity in the Crown Court
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