Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backlog in criminal courts

Victims of rape and serious sexual offences are facing unacceptable delays to justice that compound and extend their suffering and lead to too many cases collapsing. The number of such cases waiting longer than a year has increased by more … Read more Victims of rape and serious sexual offences are facing unacceptable delays to justice that compound and extend their suffering and lead to too many cases collapsing. The number of such cases waiting longer than a year has increased by more than 400% since the onset of the pandemic. As victims are made to wait longer for their cases to be heard, their lives are put on hold and their trauma is prolonged. As waiting times increase, so does the risk the victim withdraws from the process and the case collapses. While the proportion of cases collapsing in the courts in this way has reduced recently, the scale of victim attrition in other stages of the criminal justice process is unacceptably high. We are encouraged that the Department is putting more money into victim support services, doubling investment from £92 million in 2019–20 to £185 million by 2024–25. It also has plans to increase the number of independent sexual violence advisors (ISVAs), whose support to victims halves the likelihood of a victim withdrawing from the process. In June 2021, the Department set out a range of other actions it would take in its end-to-end rape review, and published a progress update in December 2021, but cannot yet say what impact these actions are having on the number of rape and serious sexual offence cases waiting in the backlog. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out its plan to assess the impact of its measures to support victims of rape and serious sexual offences and its progress on recruiting ISVAs. Show less

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We are not convinced that the Department can recruit enough judges to deliver on its ambition to reduce the Crown Court backlog. Reducing the backlog to 53,000 by March 2025 relies on increasing the number of days that the Crown … Read more We are not convinced that the Department can recruit enough judges to deliver on its ambition to reduce the Crown Court backlog. Reducing the backlog to 53,000 by March 2025 relies on increasing the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, from 100,000 in 2021–22 to 105,000 in 2022–23, then 106,500 in both 2023–24 and 2024–25. This requires a significant increase in the number of judges, for which the Department’s plan does not seem credible. Its plans are predicated on successfully recruiting 78 full-time, salaried circuit judges. This is despite only 6 Reducing the backlog in criminal courts filling 52 of 63 positions during the previous recruitment round. The resulting dependence on deploying criminal barristers and solicitors as part-time judges, as well as increasing the work load of part-time judges, to make up shortfall reduces much-needed capacity within the legal profession to prosecute and defend cases. We are concerned that the need to significantly improve the diversity of the judiciary will be overlooked in the Department’s efforts to boost the number of judges. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out what specific actions it will be taking to ramp up recruitment while improving diversity in the judiciary. Show less

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We remain unconvinced that the prison system will cope with the likely increase in prisoners given the planned increase in police officers and the Department’s work to reduce the backlog in criminal courts. In October 2019 the government announced it … Read more We remain unconvinced that the prison system will cope with the likely increase in prisoners given the planned increase in police officers and the Department’s work to reduce the backlog in criminal courts. In October 2019 the government announced it would recruit 20,000 additional police officers by 2023, which the Department expects will lead to a significant increase in cases entering the courts, and in turn custodial sentences. In July 2021, the Department reported a gap of 4,000 prison places by the end of 2023, even once it had factored in 18,000 additional places as part of its current prison build programme. It has since secured funding for 2,000 more prison places, accounting for only half of the shortfall. We are concerned that the Department’s plans allow for no contingency and resilience that might be needed if, for instance, police recruitment leads to more cases entering the courts than expected or there are delays in its prison building programme. We have reported before on the Department under-delivering on its promises to create new prison places and on the staggering backlog of maintenance work required to keep existing prisons fit for purpose. We have also been critical before about the effectiveness of cross-government approaches to reducing re-offending; sustained progress in this area will be a vital part of the equation if the prison system is going to cope. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out how it is building resilience across the criminal justice system and, crucially, how it will ensure there are enough prison places to meet the expected demand from increased police recruitment and faster recovery in criminal courts. Show less

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Vulnerable users and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are potentially impacted disproportionately by efforts to tackle the Crown Court backlog, which the Department and HMCTS have not done enough to understand. Since the start of the pandemic, HMCTS significantly increased … Read more Vulnerable users and people from ethnic minority backgrounds are potentially impacted disproportionately by efforts to tackle the Crown Court backlog, which the Department and HMCTS have not done enough to understand. Since the start of the pandemic, HMCTS significantly increased the number of hearings held remotely using video technology. However, it only published its formal evaluation of remote hearings on 10 December 2021, nearly two years into the pandemic. The limited coverage of the experiences of those with disabilities or accessibility difficulties painted a mixed picture, which HMCTS is still reviewing. A third of people requesting reasonable adjustments felt their requests were denied. There is insufficient data on ethnicity for the Department to assess its recovery plans or the pandemic’s impact on different groups. The Department is continuing to work on improving the ethnicity data it collects. Reducing the backlog in criminal courts 7 Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response the Department and HMCTS should set out their plans to specifically evaluate the experience of victims, witnesses and defendants—particularly those deemed vulnerable and from ethnic minority backgrounds—in criminal courts. Show less

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We recognise the long overdue move towards bringing data on the criminal justice system together, although it is not clear how the Department will use this to improve performance. In December 2021, the Department published a national scorecard and an … Read more We recognise the long overdue move towards bringing data on the criminal justice system together, although it is not clear how the Department will use this to improve performance. In December 2021, the Department published a national scorecard and an adult rape scorecard that bring together data on performance across the criminal justice system, including on the size of the backlog, timeliness and victim attrition. The Department plans to also produce local scorecards at the police force level. In a complex system with multiple organisations, the use of scorecards to drive performance risks creating perverse incentives as organisations focus disproportionately on the metrics that the Department has selected to publish. The Department and HMCTS do not yet have the data they need to fully understand and manage the flow of cases. Both are relying on a new case management system to address these gaps, although HMCTS has currently paused the roll-out of this system. Recommendation: In its Treasury Minute response, the Department should set out how the data it has developed and published will lead to improvements in performance and victims’ experiences. 8 Reducing the backlog in criminal courts 1 Capacity in the criminal courts Show less

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On the basis of a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General, we took evidence from the Ministry of Justice (the Department) and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service about the backlog in the criminal courts.1

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As the backlog has increased, so has the time that defendants, witnesses and victims have waited for their case to be completed. Between March 2020 and June 2021, the 1 C&AG’s Report, Reducing the backlog in criminal courts, Session 2021–22, HC 732, 22 October 2021 2 C&AG’s Report, paras 2, …

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The Department’s plan to reduce the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 cases relies on increasing the number of sitting days from 100,000 in 2021–22 to 105,000 in 2022–23, then 106,500 in both 2023–24 and 2024–25.10 HMCTS told us that it has the court staff that it needs to meet these …

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In the meantime, the Department is relying on using part-time judges (recorders) to provide the additional judicial capacity it needs. It recruited 104 crime recorders in the last recruitment round, and is looking to expand numbers further significantly. The Department told us that currently recorders are not working as many …

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In 2017, the Lammy review into how ethnic minorities are treated in the criminal justice system noted the importance of recruiting a diverse judiciary, and recommended a national target to achieve a representative judiciary by 2025.15 In 2020, the judiciary published its diversity and inclusion strategy to improve the representation …

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The Department expects that the demand for prison places will increase significantly. Its plans to increase the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, and the resultant reduction in the backlog, will likely mean more people being convicted and sent to prison. The recruitment of an additional 20,000 …

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In July 2021, the Department estimated that its court recovery plan and the increase in police officers would result in a shortfall of 4,000 prison places by the end of 2023, over and above the 18,000 additional prison places that HM Treasury had already agreed to fund as part of …

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The Department described how it is tightly managing the prison build programme to ensure there is sufficient capacity, including closely monitoring the delivery of new prison places against the demand for those places. The Department told us that HM Treasury and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority are also closely involved, …

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We have reported previously on matters concerning the expansion and maintenance of the prison system. For example, in September 2020 we found that the Department had delivered just 206 new prison places, against a commitment of 10,000 new-for-old places by 2020.22 In March 2021, we reported that the 2019 Spending …

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Since the start of the pandemic, the Department and HMCTS have significantly increased the use of hearings held remotely using video technology, and plan to continue to use them to reduce the backlog in the courts.25 We asked what impact the increased use of remote hearings has had on different …

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The Department told us that the use of remote hearings is at the discretion of the judge in each individual case, and that everybody is entitled to have their reasonable adjustments considered by the judge. However, a third of people who requested reasonable adjustments said their request was not granted. …

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We also asked about the impact of the pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic individuals, particularly given that the Department has faced difficulties collecting and analysing data on ethnicity in the past. Since the Lammy review in 2017 into the experiences of ethnic minorities in the criminal justice system, …

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The Department explained that victims of rape and serious sexual offences had been particularly affected by the pandemic. These difficult and complex cases are more likely to need a jury trial, which need space to accommodate the jury. It was more challenging to hear jury trials during the period when …

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The Department explained how the longer victims wait for their case to be heard in court, the greater the risk the victim withdraws their support of the process and the case collapses.34 It told us that the proportion of cases collapsing through victim or witness attrition fell in the last …

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Several organisations wrote to us to describe the trauma and impact on victims having to wait longer for their cases to be heard.37 In the evidence session, the Department set out some of the actions it is taking to better support victims. It is increasing what it spends on victim …

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The Department told us that having good data across the criminal justice system is a crucial first step in achieving the right outcomes and bringing the courts backlog down. In December 2021, the Department published two scorecards—one covering all crime and one covering adult rape—that bring together data on performance …

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We asked HMCTS what progress it had made on implementing Dr Natalie Byrom’s recommendations on digital justice and data.44 HMCTS told us it had set up a senior data governance panel to provide advice on the accessibility of data and will announce in early 2022 what data it intends to …

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We asked the Department what it is doing to improve data flows across different parts of the criminal justice system. The Department told us that joining up data across the system is a priority.49 It has recruited an additional director of analysis and is recruiting a director-general of performance strategy …

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