Recommendation 1

Sir Brian Leveson was commissioned by the government to undertake his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts in response to the deepening crisis in the Crown Court. The open caseload has reached a record high of over 80,000 outstanding cases as of December 2025, with some trials now listed as far ahead as 2030. The government should have produced a formal response to Part 1 of the Independent Review of Criminal Courts either prior to or at the same time as the publication of the Courts and Tribunals Bill. The absence of a formal response has inhibited scrutiny of the government’s proposals to reform the criminal courts. (Conclusion, Paragraph 6)