Recommendation 4

The remand population is at its highest number for 50 years, and the length of time some defendants on remand wait for their cases to be heard is disrupting their lives and their families’ lives, and adding to prison overcrowding. The remand population has increased sharply in recent years, reaching 17,600 in September 2024 (20% of the prison population), the highest level in 50 years, up from 9,602 in 2019 (11% of the prison population). It is unacceptable that some people are held on remand for this length of time, particularly as some will be found not guilty. More cases in the backlog awaiting trial swells the remand population, adding to prison capacity pressures and making it even harder for HM Prison and Probation Service to manage the prison population. The NAO reported that in September 2022, 32% of the remand population had been held on remand beyond the custody time limit of 6 months, and 5% had been on remand for more than two years. We are concerned that MoJ cannot provide more up–to–date information on the number of people who have been on remand beyond their custody time limits. recommendation a. MoJ, led by the Lord Chancellor, should urgently discuss with the Lady Chief Justice how to reduce remand numbers to the 2019 level, which would free up 8,000 vitally needed prison places. b. MoJ and HMCTS should gather and publish more granular data on the remand population, to show how long people are spending on remand and how this population is changing, to better understand the impact long waits have on defendants and the outcomes of their cases, and to inform the development of services that better support those on remand and their families. 6 c. MoJ and HMCTS should urgently review how the number of people on remand for over two years can be reduced to the bare minimum.