Efficiency in the criminal justice system inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“Despite some improvements in the management of court cases, around two-thirds of criminal trials do not proceed as planned on the day they are originally scheduled. Delays and aborted hearings create extra work, waste scarce resources and undermine confidence in the justice system. The National Audit Office (NAO) has recently found that although the management of cases has improved since 2010, the criminal justice system is not currently delivering value for money. Inefficiencies are created where individuals and organisations do not get things right first time, and problems are compounded because mistakes often occur early in the life of a case and are not corrected. While there can be multiple points of failure as cases progress through the system, these mistakes are often not identified until it is too late. A joint 2015 inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and HM Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate found that 18.2% of police charging decisions were incorrect. Such decisions should be picked up by the CPS before court, but 38.4% of cases were not reviewed before reaching court. The Ministry of Justice and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are leading an ambitious reform programme which includes enabling more efficient digital working and the roll-out of a single digital case management system accessible by all parties. According to the NAO, this will provide the tools for a more efficient, less paper-based system, but it may not be sufficient on its own.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
The criminal justice system is close to breaking point. Lack of shared accountability and resource pressures mean that costs are being shunted from one part of the system to another and the system suffers from too many delays and inefficiencies. There is insufficient focus on victims, who face a postcode lottery in their access to justice due to the significant variations in performance in different areas of the country. The system is already overstretched and we consider that the Ministry of Justice has exhausted the scope to make more cuts without further detriment to performance. The Government is implementing reforms to improve the system but we are concerned that users of the system won’t see the full benefit for another four years. There are opportunities for the Ministry to make improvements before then, including better sharing of good practice and making sure that everyone is getting things right first time.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 7 March 2016 to its close on 4 January 2018.
- Oral evidence 17 Mar 2016
- Report 27 May 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 1st Report - Efficiency in the criminal justice system ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 17 Mar 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗