Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Government has also committed additional funding to support the court system to reduce the backlogs,...
Conclusion
Government has also committed additional funding to support the court system to reduce the backlogs, including by making court rooms safe through the installation of plexiglass and introducing 40 Nightingale courts, with plans to increase this by a further 20 courts. It has also brought back into service some court rooms it closed through its court reform programme. The Ministry told us this increase in capacity was beginning to show some results, particularly in magistrates’ courts, but the overall situation remained very challenging.12 Despite having 290 rooms that can be used for jury trials, the Ministry told us that trials involving more than one defendant (“multi-hander trials”) are proving particularly difficult to accommodate, but that work was in progress to address these challenges. It also committed to maximising the number of sitting days for judges this financial year. Despite us pressing the Ministry for clarity, it was unable to tell us what level of backlog it was planning for. The Ministry could say at least that it aims to reduce the backlog to lower than pre-pandemic levels, but those levels were already unacceptably high.13
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government
Not Addressed
3.3 The Permanent Secretary wrote to the Committee on 18 May 2021 providing an update on recent progress and current plans, and the Lord Chancellor has been clear that he wants the Crown Courts to run to the fullest extent possible this year, with no limit on sitting days. 3.4 Progress in reducing outstanding cases is sensitive to a range of factors, including the future path of the COVID-19 pandemic and the restrictions needed to manage it, most notably social distancing. However, the department is ramping up work to enable judges to safely hold as many hearings as possible, using existing capacity to the maximum extent possible and adding capacity through the Nightingale courts programme. In the Magistrates’ Courts, HMCTS and the senior judiciary have recently published a plan setting out their ambition to restore court listing and timings to pre-pandemic levels before the end of 2021.