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
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.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government
Deferred
A key objective of the Government’s over £1 million investment into the recruitment of new magistrates is to streamline the recruitment process, reducing the length of time from application to appointment. As a result, a revised, online, recruitment process has been introduced to ensure applying to the magistracy is more efficient but, remains robust and challenging to identify the best candidates. Changes to the process to recruit magistrates will be kept under review, including impacts on application times. The Criminal Courts—Increasing the power of magistrates