Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 10
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)
We heard of the many issues that MoJ and HMCTS know need addressing if they are to reduce the backlog, but which they are waiting for the Leveson review to report on: poor case preparation, defendants being absent or not 14 Qq 5, 81 15 Qq 38–39 16 Q 2; C&AG’s Report, para 3.2 17 C&AG’s Report, para 4 18 Qq 2, 6, 61 19 Qq 5, 25 20 Ministry of Justice, Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, published 12 December 2024 (accessed 17 January 2025) 12 arriving at court on time, the defence not being ready, advice and guidance to defendants on their pleas, capacity of solicitors and barristers, as well as reforming the fundamental structural issues within the courts system that mean new cases are outstripping the rate at which the courts can conclude cases.21
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.