Plans to divert thousands more criminal cases to the magistrates’ courts by increasing magistrates’ sentencing powers are ‘high risk’ at a time when the magistrates’ backlog has risen to an all-time high, Bar Council chair Kirsty Brimelow KC has warned
The latest criminal court statistics for October to December 2025, published last week, show 379,437 outstanding cases in the magistrates’ courts, 70% higher than the same period in 2019.
Brimelow said: ‘The statistics show that moving more cases from the Crown Court to the magistrates’ court is not the answer, as magistrates are already overwhelmed and facing growing delays of their own.’
