Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 8
8
The Department’s plan to reduce the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 cases relies on increasing...
Conclusion
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 plans.11 But the Department needs to recruit more judges to meet this increase, and has faced difficulties recruiting the numbers it needs. In the last recruitment round, it filled 52 of 63 available positions for full-time, salaried circuit judges. It said it is hoping to recruit a further 78 full-time judges, which will meet the additional demand it expects as well as the shortfall from the last recruitment round.12
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 27 May 2022. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗