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Ministers are poised to pave the way in which for main legal justice reform after new figures seen by The Unbiased revealed the dire state of the courts system.
Particulars of a serious evaluation are anticipated be unveiled by justice ministers tomorrow as they wrestle with common ready instances for trials that are at their longest for greater than a decade. Among the many catastrophic particulars revealed are:
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Already a evaluation into sentencing is being carried out by Tory ex-justice secretary David Gauke, however additional initiatives are set to be introduced this week.
The figures have ballooned for the reason that courts had been in impact shutdown in the course of the Covid lockdown however efforts by the earlier authorities to scale back the backlog solely noticed it worsen.
The damning legacy left by the Tories will imply that there might be questions going ahead on whether or not jury trials will proceed for some offences and consideration on Justice of the Peace court docket powers.
The analysis got here because the Labour authorities rejected Tory excuses for the Crown Courtroom backlog rising to file ranges on their watch.
The Nationwide Audit Workplace famous that “the Crown Courtroom backlog began to extend in 2019”, while the Bar Council famous that the backlog was “too excessive earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic, after which rose to disaster ranges…there was no vital progress in lowering the backlog since then”.
A Labour spokesperson mentioned: “Beneath the final Authorities the Crown Courtroom backlog rose to file excessive ranges. The Tories stored victims of great, violent crimes ready for justice. Repeatedly we heard the Conservatives blame their file backlog on the pandemic however delays had been rising earlier than lockdown and continued afterwards.
“This Labour authorities is taking the robust choices to ship on our plan for change with safer streets. The Tories left prisons overflowing and a file variety of instances languishing within the crown court docket backlog. Justice delayed is justice denied, and this authorities is dedicated to making sure that victims see justice and criminals face the punishment they deserve.”
Labour pointed to figures highlighting that regardless of Conservative plans to scale back the court docket backlog by 7,000 locations by March 2025, on their watch the backlog really grew by greater than 7,000 to a file excessive of 67,573 by December final yr.
The typical ready time for rape trials was over 4 months longer than it was in 2014, whereas trials for GBH took practically an entire yr to come back to court docket on common.
Analysis additionally reveals that extra trials for a few of the most critical crimes had been postponed and rescheduled final yr, while the proportion of trials that are being delayed additionally elevated.
Practically 30 per cent of trials for violence in opposition to the particular person had been postponed in 2023 – while 23 per cent of trials for sexual assault and 20 per cent of rape trials are postponed. 31 per cent of weapons possession trials had been delayed final yr.
The full variety of delayed trials for these crimes has elevated by 50 per cent since 2014.
For each rape and sexual assault, the variety of trials which had been postponed in 2023 was greater than double the quantity in 2014. Final yr there have been over 570 rape trials and 725 sexual assault trials which had been postponed, additional delaying entry to justice for victims of extraordinarily critical crimes.
In her 2021/22 annual report, the Sufferer’s Commissioner famous that “court docket delays can exert great tolls on victims. Many victims’ lives are successfully placed on maintain.”
She famous that victims dropping out of the system represented “a critical and basic problem to the justice system itself” and “a denial of justice to the people concerned.”
The court docket backlog at the moment stands at a file excessive of 67,573 – up 8 per cent on the earlier yr.
