According to the MoJ, this will free up an estimated 2,000 extra days of Crown Court time per year. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the move would ‘provide vita additional capacity to drive down the backlog of cases in the Crown Courts’.
MoJ figures, released last week, showed 58,728 outstanding cases in the Crown Court and 372,654 in the magistrates’ court, in November 2021.
Welcoming the extension, Bev Higgs, national chair of the Magistrates’ Association, said: ‘We have been campaigning for years for [this].’
However, shadow courts and sentencing minister Alex Cunningham MP said: ‘Ministers must give assurances that greater powers for magistrates won’t inflict even more burden on Crown Courts―with increased numbers of appeals overloading a diminishing number of criminal advocates left in the system.’
The Judicial College will provide training ahead of the extension coming into effect in coming months via a commencement order.
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