Recommendation 29

In evidence to the Justice Committee in November 2024, the Lady Chief Justice described how the concordat agreement with MoJ for 2024–25, agreed under the previous administration, had provided for 106,000 sitting days. She reported that in August HMCTS had then said the courts could actually sit up to a maximum capacity of 113,000 days; in light of which there had been conversations about whether the MoJ wanted to fund to maximum capacity, and the decision was taken not to do so. An additional 500 days had been found, taking the total sitting days to 106,500, but from within HMCTS’s allocation, not with additional funding. She said that the decision to limit to 106,500 had had a drastic effect, with cases that were ready to be heard not likely to come back before late 2025–26 or even 2027. She stressed that this would not be saving money, and that by deferring cases the costs would actually increase, with the CPS and barristers having to redo and refresh work done previously, in addition to the social cost of delays. The Lady Chief Justice commented that “There was an opportunity to sit to maximum capacity at 113,000 and it was not taken.” 81 Returning to our evidence session in January. MoJ told us that one of the key things it was doing to address the backlog was doing as much as it could, within funding 75 Q 9 76 Q 19 77 Q 22 78 Q 73 79 Q 38 80 Q 30 81 Justice Committee, Oral evidence: Work of the Lady Chief Justice, 26 November 2024, HC 421, Qq 3, 6, 21 20 constraints, on sitting days.82 It told us that a small fluctuation in its budget emerged at the end of last year, as a result of which it was able to fund an additional 2,000 sitting days, taking the total to 108,500 for the year.83 Accuracy of data across the criminal justice system