Jane Croft
The backlog of crown court cases is causing “grave concerns” amongst the government inspectors who monitor the justice system, a new report has found.
The study which looked at the impact of the pandemic on the Criminal Justice System has concluded that the greatest risk to criminal justice in England and Wales comes from the “unprecedented and very serious” backlog in court cases which is having a ripple impact on all parts of the justice system.
The case backlog predates the coronavirus pandemic but the situation has been exacerbated by Covid-19 after crown courts were closed and jury trials were temporarily suspended for two months last year. Since then numbers of hearings have fallen because two or three video-linked courtrooms are now needed for each trial due to social distancing measures.
The number of outstanding cases in crown courts in England and Wales rose from 39,318 in early March to 53,318 in late November, according to…