HM Courts and Tribunals Service statistics published last week show the Crown Court backlog rose from 61,180 in March 2023 to 61,712 in April 2023. In April 2022 it was 57,768. The magistrates’ court backlog was 337,367 in April 2022 rising to 347,769 in April 2023.
Calling for urgent funding for the criminal justice system, Law Society president Lubna Shuja said: ‘It is unacceptable that victims and defendants are still having to wait years for trials to take place.
“Decades of underinvestment and cuts mean there simply aren’t enough judges and lawyers to tackle this huge volume of cases.
“The Ministry of Justice is likely to miss its unambitious March 2025 target to get the court backlog down to 53,000.’
Rape Crisis reported in March that victims were waiting an average of 839 days for trials to complete.
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