Recommendation 25

We heard from HMCTS of other reasons for ineffective trials that would appear to have simple solutions.68 We heard how organisations contracted to transport prisoners fail to get all defendants from prison to court on time, incurring a financial penalty if the defendant arrives more than 15 minutes after the scheduled start of court proceedings.69 Poor case preparation was also cited by MoJ as a major contributing factor to ineffective trials, and we heard from HMCTS how this was a long standing issue that had been considered by the original Leveson Review in 2015.70 We heard that MoJ and HMCTS are expecting the current Leveson Review to “endorse and enhance” the principles for better case management that the 2015 review set out.71 Ministry of Justice’s spending on the Crown Court backlog