Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 5
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Published 5 Mar 2025
Addressed to HM Treasury
Public Accounts Committee Crown Court backlogs All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The proportion of hearings that do not take place on the day they are scheduled (ineffective trials) remains far too high, and there are causes of ineffective trials that MoJ and HMCTS could be more active in addressing now. One in four trials do not take place on the day scheduled. There has been a marginal improvement since 2023 (the proportion of ineffective trials was then 27% compared to 25% more recently). While the improvement is welcome, the proportion of ineffective trials remains significantly higher than the pre–pandemic rate, which was consistently around 15%. The number of ineffective trials due to the unavailability of barristers or solicitors remains much higher than before the pandemic, and while the recent increase in the number of criminal barristers is welcome, we are not convinced that recent increases in legal aid fees have completely reversed the downward trend in legal professionals working in criminal law. We heard of other reasons for ineffective trials, some of which would seem to be straightforward to resolve, such as defendants on remand arriving late to court, poor case preparation, and a significant backlog of maintenance across the Crown Court estate. recommendation Alongside its Treasury Minute response, MoJ should write to the Committee to set out: • Its understanding of the causes of ineffective trials and the impact each has. • Whether professional capacity is a significant factor affecting ineffective trials. • What the impact has been on ineffective trial rates of changes it has made, for example, increases in legal aid fees. • What further actions are required and by whom to address the causes of ineffective trials. 7
From: Public Accounts Committee, 12th Report - Crown Court backlogs (HC 348), 5 March 2025
Government response
Latest Treasury Minutes progress report to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twelfth Report of Session 2024-26
The government responded to the whole report on 4 June 2026.
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twelfth report from Session 2024-25
Published 16 May 2025.
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government states that it "agrees with the Committee's recommendation" on each recommendation in the report, while setting out that current actions "alone are not enough to reduce the outstanding caseload" and that "substantial reform" is required.
- On a plan while the Leveson Review is awaited, it lists current measures and says it "looks forward to receiving" the Independent Review's recommendations in Spring 2025. It states that work is "already underway" on swift implementation, with a target of July 2025.
- On remand, it says listing is for the independent judiciary and that the Lord Chancellor "will continue to discuss" prioritising remand cases with the Lord Chief Justice. It "will consider further steps" once the Independent Review reports.
- On remand data, it "anticipate[s]" improved insights on time spent on remand by the end of March 2026, and will "aim to include them" in the relevant publication by April 2027.
- On AI and digitisation, further use is described as "dependent on Spending Review (SR) funding" and subject to further pilots. Decommissioning of the legacy systems Xhibit and Libra is "currently planned" for completion by Spring 2027.