Select committee: Public Accounts Committee
Conclusion 27
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)
As the NAO report found, MoJ cannot put a figure on how much has been spent on addressing the backlog in the Crown Court, as actions to address the backlog are spread over different parts of the criminal justice system.73 Judicial and staffing capacity, physical court capacity, the rate at which new cases come into the court and the rate at which cases conclude all affect the size of the backlog.74 At our evidence session, MoJ told us that around £42 million of the £477 million from the 2021 Spending Review was spent on the criminal courts, including additional sitting days in the Crown Court. Another £65 million was spent on handling the demands of the COVID–19 pandemic and associated recovery. Of the £107 million total, £28 million was spent on Nightingale courts and £18 million on video hearings, while other funding went to other parts of the justice system such as new 67 Qq 27, 75 68 Qq 6, 45 69 Qq 26, 45, 86; Letter from HMCTS to PAC, 22 January 2025 70 Qq 6, 45 71 Qq 45, 55, 64 72 C&AG’s Report, paras 1.8, 3.2 73 C&AG’s Report, para 17 74 C&AG’s Report, paras 17, 3.2 19 prisons and legal aid.75 MoJ also told us about how it has used funding in recent years to support criminal legal aid for barristers76 and solicitors,77 and to address the maintenance backlog in the courts.78
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.