Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many criminal cases are currently awaiting trial in London and how they propose to deal with the backlog in trials.

Open caseload and cases awaiting trial in England and Wales, and in London.

Source: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK.

• The open caseload reflects the workload in the courts at any time. It will never be zero, as it reflects the volume of cases that are active in the courts at a particular point, including those cases that have been recently received, those close to being disposed, those which are complex and take time to complete and those that may be delayed.
• The Ministry of Justice publishes a range of timeliness measures concerning the duration of key stages across the criminal justice system. Available here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: October to December 2024 - GOV.UK.
• We recognise the distressing impact that long waiting times can have on victims, particularly those who are vulnerable.
• We continue to seek ways to improve all victims’ and witnesses’ experience of the Criminal Justice System. The Victims and Prisoners Act will improve awareness of and compliance with the Victims’ Code, making sure that victims know about their rights in the Code, and that agencies deliver them.

Measures to tackle the criminal courts caseload

This government inherited a record and rising crown court backlog. Justice delayed risks becoming justice denied.

For this financial year (25/26), this Government is funding a record allocation of Crown Court sitting days to deliver swifter justice for victims – 110,000 sitting days this year, 4,000 higher than the last Government funded.

As part of our commitment to bearing down on the caseload we have increased magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 months to 12 months’ imprisonment for single triable-either way offences. This will free up capacity in the Crown Court, ensuring it is reserved for the more serious and complex cases.

However, the scale of the challenge is beyond what increasing sitting days can achieve. This is why we have commissioned an Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, to consider the merits of longer-term reform and the efficiency of processes in the criminal courts.

In the meantime, we are piloting dedicated Case Coordinator posts in the Crown Court to see if this can reduce ineffective hearings and trials.