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12th Report - Crown Court backlogs

Public Accounts Committee HC 348 Published 5 March 2025
Report Status
Government responded
Conclusions & Recommendations
32 items (4 recs)
Government Response
AI assessment · 31 of 32 classified
Accepted 17
Accepted in Part 3
Acknowledged 5
Deferred 6
Government response
Treasury minutes: Government response to the Committee of Public Accounts on the Twelfth report from Session 2024-25 · published 16 May 2025
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Recommendations & Conclusions

5 items
22 Recommendation Acknowledged

Proportion of ineffective trials remains excessively high, impacted by over-listing.

Recommendation
MoJ confirmed that the proportion of ineffective trials–those that do not go ahead on the planned date and are relisted for later dates–had dropped from 27% at the end of 2023 to 25% in September 2024.55 MoJ acknowledged that this … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation and has provided further details in a letter to the Committee, stating that the recommendation was implemented by April 2025.
HM Treasury
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23 Recommendation Acknowledged

Counsel unavailability continues to cause significant ineffective trials after industrial action.

Recommendation
The NAO report charts a sharp increase in 2022 in the number of ineffective trials due to the unavailability of counsel, when it went up to 4,136 compared to 279 in 2021. While the impact of industrial action by the … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's recommendation and has provided further details in a letter to the Committee, stating that the recommendation was implemented by April 2025.
HM Treasury
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26 Conclusion Acknowledged

Ministry of Justice received substantial funding to tackle Crown Court backlog and expand capacity.

Conclusion
In the 2021 Spending Review, MoJ received an additional £477 million to support recovery across the criminal justice system, including to help reduce the Crown Court backlog which then stood at around 60,000. MoJ also secured an additional £644 million … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's conclusion and has informed the Committee via a separate letter that the recommendation was implemented by April 2025.
HM Treasury
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27 Conclusion Acknowledged

Ministry of Justice cannot quantify total spending on Crown Court backlog accurately.

Conclusion
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 … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's conclusion and has informed the Committee via a separate letter that the recommendation was implemented by April 2025.
HM Treasury
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28 Conclusion Acknowledged

MoJ lacks confidence in securing resources for criminal justice reforms

Conclusion
We asked witnesses for a breakdown of the £477 million received in the 2021 Spending Review, and an outline of what it achieved. We were told that it “depends on what the counterfactual is”. Without that funding, MoJ told us … Read more
Government Response Summary
The government agrees with the Committee's conclusion and has informed the Committee via a separate letter that the recommendation was implemented by April 2025.
HM Treasury
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