Giving evidence to the Justice Select Committee last week, Lord Burnett said more Crown Court judges were needed, for example, a recent circuit court judge competition had fallen short by 12, and the 12 it fell short by were all criminal Crown Court judges rather than family and civil judges.
He said there are now about 366 court rooms capable of conducting jury trials, compared to about 300 a year ago, so physical capacity was no longer a constraining factor. However, he was ‘struggling in some parts of the country’ to provide the judicial resources necessary to do the work.
‘We are encouraging the recorders to sit more and the recorders are stepping up to that challenge, but again, the position is different in different parts of the country,’ he said.
‘London presents a particular problem. The Midlands the next problem. Other parts of the country less so. I am also encouraging recently retired circuit judges to sit in the crown court and we are deploying high court judges more than we did before COVID to sit in the crown court.’
Lord Burnett said he was ‘fairly confident’ the poor condition of court buildings, with broken heating systems and leaking roofs, was ‘one of the inhibitors to attracting people to become judges. I know that to be so because that is what people say.’ He agreed the poor maintenance of buildings was ‘a material risk in reducing the backlog’.
He also highlighted a shortage of criminal lawyers, stating ‘the likely reason is the relentless reduction in real rates of remuneration over the last 15 years’.
Lord Burnett reiterated these points at his annual press conference this week, repeating his calls for more judicial recruitment and funding to increase sitting days.
