Courts

(asked on 24th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to tackle the level of cases that are withdrawn due to (a) court delays and (b) case backlogs.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 1st July 2021

In the courts we have taken decisive action to address the impact of the pandemic on how quickly cases can be heard. We spent over £250 million on recovery last financial year to roll out new technology for remote hearings, make the court estate COVID-secure, and set up 60 new Nightingale courtrooms. This has enabled disposals to return to pre-pandemic levels in the Crown Court, which is over 2000 cases per week, and we completed over 7,000 jury trials last year.

Criminal courts continue to recover from the pandemic, with magistrates’ backlogs having fallen by 70,000 since last summer and our figures show that in recent weeks the outstanding caseload in the Crown Court has begun to reduce.

We will continue to address the outstanding caseload and reduce delays by increasing capacity in our physical estate, running Crown Courts to the fullest possible extent, using every judge and courtroom to maximise court sitting days.

Supporting victims and witnesses is a top priority for the Government. We are acutely aware of the risk of victims dropping out of the criminal justice process and we have listened carefully to stakeholders and worked across government to build an understanding of the long-term causes of victim attrition.

We continue to monitor the impact of Covid-19 on victims and victim attrition. We know that victims of certain crime types and in certain geographical areas have been particularly impacted during this period.

In 2021-22, we will provide c.£151m for victim and witness support services, £27m of which will be used to increase the number of independent advisors for sexual violence and domestic abuse victims by over 40 per cent. Beyond significant increases in funding to victims’ services, the Government has taken a range of actions to ensure that victims and witnesses receive the support they need in the face of delays caused by the court backlogs.

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