Recommendations & Conclusions
23 items
2
Recommendation
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
Victims of rape and serious sexual offences are facing unacceptable delays to justice that compound and extend their suffering and lead to too many cases collapsing. The number of such cases waiting longer than a year has increased by more than 400% since the onset of the pandemic. As victims …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2024 2.2 Since publishing the End-to-End Rape Review Report on Findings and Actions in June 2021, the government has made significant progress in delivering actions to support victims …
HM Treasury
3
Recommendation
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We are not convinced that the Department can recruit enough judges to deliver on its ambition to reduce the Crown Court backlog. Reducing the backlog to 53,000 by March 2025 relies on increasing the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, from 100,000 in 2021–22 to 105,000 in …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2024 (end of the spending review period) 3.2 Since 2017, the pool of fee paid judges in the courts has increased by 12% and the cadre of Deputy District …
HM Treasury
4
Recommendation
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We remain unconvinced that the prison system will cope with the likely increase in prisoners given the planned increase in police officers and the Department’s work to reduce the backlog in criminal courts. In October 2019 the government announced it would recruit 20,000 additional police officers by 2023, which the …
Government response. 5. PAC conclusion: Waiting times for elective and cancer treatment are too dependent on where people live and there is no national plan to address this postcode lottery.
HM Treasury
5
Recommendation
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
Vulnerable users and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are potentially impacted disproportionately by efforts to tackle the Crown Court backlog, which the Department and HMCTS have not done enough to understand. Since the start of the pandemic, HMCTS significantly increased the number of hearings held remotely using video technology. However, …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 5.2 As part of the evaluation of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reform, HMCTS will consider the experience of criminal court users. Field work is due to …
HM Treasury
6
Recommendation
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We recognise the long overdue move towards bringing data on the criminal justice system together, although it is not clear how the Department will use this to improve performance. In December 2021, the Department published a national scorecard and an adult rape scorecard that bring together data on performance across …
Government response. The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 6.2 The first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, bringing together data from across the system for the …
HM Treasury
1
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (the Department) and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service about the backlog in the criminal courts.1
Government response. Based on a report by the National Audit Office, the Committee took evidence on Monday 13 December 2021 from the Ministry of Justice and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. The Committee published its report on 9 March 2022. This …
HM Treasury
7
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
As the backlog has increased, so has the time that defendants, witnesses and victims have waited for their case to be completed. Between March 2020 and June 2021, the 1 C&AG’s Report, Reducing the backlog in criminal courts, Session 2021–22, HC 732, 22 October 2021 2 C&AG’s Report, paras 2, …
Government response. 1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: September 2022 1.2 The criminal justice system is complex with many moving parts, and delays can be caused by any of the parties involved. There are processes in place …
HM Treasury
8
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department’s plan to reduce the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 cases relies on increasing the number of sitting days from 100,000 in 2021–22 to 105,000 in 2022–23, then 106,500 in both 2023–24 and 2024–25.10 HMCTS told us that it has the court staff that it needs to meet these …
Government response. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2024 (end of the spending review period) 3.2 Since 2017, the pool of fee paid judges in the courts has increased by 12% and the cadre of Deputy …
HM Treasury
9
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
In the meantime, the Department is relying on using part-time judges (recorders) to provide the additional judicial capacity it needs. It recruited 104 crime recorders in the last recruitment round, and is looking to expand numbers further significantly. The Department told us that currently recorders are not working as many …
Government response. 3.5 To meet the needs of court recovery, recruitment for 70 Circuit Judges and 125 Recorders commences in 2022. Should there be shortfalls, these will be mitigated by: • increasing Recorder recruitment where there are higher numbers of appointable candidates …
HM Treasury
10
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
In 2017, the Lammy review into how ethnic minorities are treated in the criminal justice system noted the importance of recruiting a diverse judiciary, and recommended a national target to achieve a representative judiciary by 2025.15 In 2020, the judiciary published its diversity and inclusion strategy to improve the representation …
Government response. 3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: March 2024 (end of the spending review period) 3.2 Since 2017, the pool of fee paid judges in the courts has increased by 12% and the cadre of Deputy …
HM Treasury
11
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department expects that the demand for prison places will increase significantly. Its plans to increase the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, and the resultant reduction in the backlog, will likely mean more people being convicted and sent to prison. The recruitment of an additional 20,000 …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed and is currently undertaking the largest prison build programme in a century - investing £3.8 billion …
HM Treasury
12
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
In July 2021, the Department estimated that its court recovery plan and the increase in police officers would result in a shortfall of 4,000 prison places by the end of 2023, over and above the 18,000 additional prison places that HM Treasury had already agreed to fund as part of …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed and is currently undertaking the largest prison build programme in a century - investing £3.8 billion …
HM Treasury
13
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department described how it is tightly managing the prison build programme to ensure there is sufficient capacity, including closely monitoring the delivery of new prison places against the demand for those places. The Department told us that HM Treasury and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority are also closely involved, …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed and is currently undertaking the largest prison build programme in a century - investing £3.8 billion …
HM Treasury
14
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We have reported previously on matters concerning the expansion and maintenance of the prison system. For example, in September 2020 we found that the Department had delivered just 206 new prison places, against a commitment of 10,000 new-for-old places by 2020.22 In March 2021, we reported that the 2019 Spending …
Government response. 4.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 4.2 The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed and is currently undertaking the largest prison build programme in a century - investing £3.8 billion …
HM Treasury
15
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
Since the start of the pandemic, the Department and HMCTS have significantly increased the use of hearings held remotely using video technology, and plan to continue to use them to reduce the backlog in the courts.25 We asked what impact the increased use of remote hearings has had on different …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 5.2 As part of the evaluation of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reform, HMCTS will consider the experience of criminal court users. Field work is due …
HM Treasury
16
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department told us that the use of remote hearings is at the discretion of the judge in each individual case, and that everybody is entitled to have their reasonable adjustments considered by the judge. However, a third of people who requested reasonable adjustments said their request was not granted. …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 5.2 As part of the evaluation of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reform, HMCTS will consider the experience of criminal court users. Field work is due …
HM Treasury
17
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We also asked about the impact of the pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals, particularly given that the Department has faced difficulties collecting and analysing data on ethnicity in the past. Since the Lammy review in 2017 into the experiences of ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system, …
Government response. 5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2024 5.2 As part of the evaluation of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reform, HMCTS will consider the experience of criminal court users. Field work is due …
HM Treasury
18
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department explained that victims of rape and serious sexual offences had been particularly affected by the pandemic. These difficult and complex cases are more likely to need a jury trial, which need space to accommodate the jury. It was more challenging to hear jury trials during the period when …
Government response. 2.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2024 2.2 Since publishing the End-to-End Rape Review Report on Findings and Actions in June 2021, the government has made significant progress in delivering actions to support victims …
HM Treasury
19
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department explained how the longer victims wait for their case to be heard in court, the greater the risk the victim withdraws their support of the process and the case collapses.34 It told us that the proportion of cases collapsing through victim or witness attrition fell in the last …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 6.2 The first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, bringing together data from across the system for …
HM Treasury
20
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
Several organisations wrote to us to describe the trauma and impact on victims having to wait longer for their cases to be heard.37 In the evidence session, the Department set out some of the actions it is taking to better support victims. It is increasing what it spends on victim …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 6.2 The first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, bringing together data from across the system for …
HM Treasury
21
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
The Department told us that having good data across the criminal justice system is a crucial first step in achieving the right outcomes and bringing the courts backlog down. In December 2021, the Department published two scorecards—one covering all crime and one covering adult rape—that bring together data on performance …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 6.2 The first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, bringing together data from across the system for …
HM Treasury
22
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We asked HMCTS what progress it had made on implementing Dr Natalie Byrom’s recommendations on digital justice and data.44 HMCTS told us it had set up a senior data governance panel to provide advice on the accessibility of data and will announce in early 2022 what data it intends to …
Government response. 6.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Summer 2023 6.2 The first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, bringing together data from across the system for …
HM Treasury
23
Conclusion
Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backl…
We asked the Department what it is doing to improve data flows across different parts of the criminal justice system. The Department told us that joining up data across the system is a priority.49 It has recruited an additional director of analysis and is recruiting a director-general of performance strategy …
Government response. The department is taking forward work to improve data flows across the criminal justice system and to get a grip on performance. This includes the establishment of a new data and performance board, recruitment of a director of analysis, and …
HM Treasury