Recommendation 6

MoJ could not tell us which of the actions it funded from nearly £500 million of additional funding it received through the 2021 Spending Review had the biggest impact on reducing the backlog, nor could it quantify what it expects the cost to be of dealing with the backlog now, raising concerns over MoJ’s ability to put a convincing and costed bid to the current Spending Review. MoJ received £477 million in the 2021 Spending Review to support recovery across the criminal justice system, including help to reduce the Crown Court backlog. MoJ received another £644 million a year by 2024–25 to expand capacity in the criminal justice system, including to manage increased numbers of new cases. The criminal justice system is complex, and the backlog in the Crown Court is affected by many factors including the rate at which new cases come in, judicial staffing levels, physical court capacity and the length of time cases take to conclude. However, with the current Spending Review and the Leveson Review, which is expected to make recommendations for fundamental reform to the judicial system, we would expect MoJ to be able to articulate more clearly how it previously used its resources to tackle the backlog. We also note that the longer it takes to hear cases, and the more they are delayed, the more expensive they become, both in terms of financial and social costs; there is therefore a clear incentive for all to fund the maximum available number of sitting days. recommendation Alongside its Treasury Minute response, MoJ should write to the Committee to clearly set out: • What it has spent in total since 2021 on reducing the backlog in the Crown Courts and how the additional funding was used. • The actions and interventions that money was spent on. • What it assesses has been the impact of that additional investment, including identifying the most cost–effective interventions.