His report, published this week, also highlights the shortage of High Court judges.
Lord Burnett writes: ‘The starting point [for funding] should be a realistic assessment of the outstanding work which needs to be done together with an evaluation of the likely work coming into the system.
‘To recover from COVID and then make progress in dealing with what were unsustainable backlogs in any event, a concerted effort will be needed to use the court estate and judicial resources, including additional use of fee paid judges, to dispose of cases which are ready for hearing.’
The backlog at the Crown Court rose from 37,434 cases at the end of 2019 to 48,700 cases at the end of September 2020.
On recruitment of judges, he highlighted that the tally of High Court judges ‘remains below the statutory quota’, and the district bench ‘is well under strength’.
To download the report please go to https://bit.ly/2HZUKft.
