Commissioner criticises ‘terrible’ court backlogs
However, the Law Society, representing solicitors, doubted, external[1] the government would meet “even its own unambitious target” of reducing the Crown Court backlog to 53,000 by March 2025.
The government’s own figures, external[2] show more than a quarter of crown court cases take a year or more to complete, compared to less than 10 per cent before the pandemic.
Mr Campion said he had increased investment in front line officers to bring more offenders to the point of being charged, only for cases not to come to court in a timely fashion.
“Whilst I can’t influence the number of judges we’ve got or the number of courts that are sitting, what I can do is make sure we support victims and witnesses during these delays,” he told BBC Radio Shropshire.
The commissioner, whose region covers Herefordshire, Shropshire and Worcestershire, also said people were having to travel longer distances for court cases.
“In Hereford, we’ve not had a crown court for a number of years, which meant we’ve seen a number of people travelling outside their community.
“And whilst we do still have courts in Shropshire that are functioning, they don’t have enough capacity so people are having to travel elsewhere,” he said.
References
- ^ doubted, external (www.lawsociety.org.uk)
- ^ government’s own figures, external (www.gov.uk)