Delay & Covid: the court’s power to reduce sentence

• Delay between arrest and charge and charge and trial. Effect of delay on sentence and whether this should afford a reduction to the overall tariff.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect on the business of the criminal courts, in particular the Crown Court’s capacity to carry on with its main business, which is the administration of jury trials. By their very nature, the trial process in the Crown Court involves the movement of ‘jury pools’ around the Crown Court building, and jurors sitting in close proximity to each other and deliberating in small rooms or spaces.

Those within the profession as advocates in the Crown and magistrate’s courts have been well aware of the backlogs that already existed before the pandemic. The latest figures released by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) are in excess of 50,000 cases, much of which was already an issue due to the reduction in sitting