Recommendation 7

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