Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 7
7
As the backlog has increased, so has the time that defendants, witnesses and victims have...
Conclusion
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, 1.6 3 C&AG’s Report, para 1 4 C&AG’s Report, paras 3, 6 5 Qq7–10; C&AG’s Report, paras 5, 1.10–1.11 6 Qq19–20; C&AG’s Report, para 6 Reducing the backlog in criminal courts 9 number of cases waiting longer than a year increased by 302%, from 2,803 to 11,379.7 The Department told us that it is focusing on reducing waiting times as well as the size of the Crown Court backlog, and that this will require improvements in productivity and the rate at which courts can complete cases. The Department said it needs to be careful that this focus on reducing waiting times does not create perverse incentives, for example by avoiding the more difficult cases.8 HMCTS told us that the local judiciary in each area has a great understanding of how long each case will take to complete and accepted that there was more it could do to bring these data together.9 Recruiting and retaining staff
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
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 which must be followed to ensure a fair trial for all. The Ministry of Justice (the department) has published criminal justice scorecards which will allow it to increase transparency across the system and is working with the judiciary and partners across the criminal justice system to improve timeliness. The judicially-led Crown Court Improvement Group is reinvigorating Better Case Management (BCM), and the department is proceeding with the Court Reform programme to make court processes more efficient. The department is working to reduce demand in the Crown Court and improving the wider system capacity, for example, extending magistrates’ sentencing powers. More widely, the Spending Review provides an extra £477 million for the Criminal Justice System as a starting point to help to improve waiting times for victims of crime and reduce the Crown Court backlog to an estimated 53,000 cases by March 2025. 1.3 The department has previously worked with the judiciary to explore the issue of reasonable expectations for case completion times in the Crown Court. This was set out in Better Case Management, a judicially-led initiative introduced in 2016, under which timeframes are set out for each stage of the process regarding preparation for trial. BCM outlines that cases are expected to take 182 days from receipt at Crown Court to start of trial (assuming a non-guilty plea), providing all parties undertake their obligations. 1.4 The department believes the timeframes set out in BCM remain a reasonable expectation, subject to there being sufficient capacity to reduce outstanding cases, and it will discuss this with the judiciary as part of the work set out above to improve timeliness. 1.5 The department will write to the Committee by October 2022 to update on progress.