{"id":35108,"date":"2024-05-24T02:54:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T02:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/target-to-cut-court-backlog-cannot-be-met-says-watchdog\/"},"modified":"2024-05-24T02:54:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T02:54:29","slug":"target-to-cut-court-backlog-cannot-be-met-says-watchdog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/target-to-cut-court-backlog-cannot-be-met-says-watchdog\/","title":{"rendered":"Target to cut court backlog cannot be met, says watchdog"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Dominic Casciani,<\/span>Home and legal correspondent, <\/span>@BBCDomC<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"PAPA<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The 2022 barristers’ strike added to the backlogs that began before the pandemic<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The government\u2019s target to reduce unprecedented criminal court backlogs in England and Wales cannot be met, the national spending watchdog has concluded.<\/p>\n

The National Audit Office (NAO) says the delays are affecting victims and risking cases collapsing.<\/p>\n

It reveals that a key minister-led body that should have been involved in solving the crisis did not meet once in a two-year period.<\/p>\n

There are 67,573 cases waiting to be dealt with in Crown Courts – a backlog that began before the pandemic.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The number of cases rapidly shot up when courts were closed under social distancing – and the backlog worsened as lawyers quit or went on strike in a major pay dispute.<\/p>\n

In October 2021, ministers set a target to reduce the backlog to 53,000 by March 2025, hoping that extra spending on judges and temporary courtrooms would work.<\/p>\n

But the NAO says the backlog has got larger, meaning the target is no longer achievable.<\/p>\n

Officials now project the backlog could reduce to 64,000 by March 2025, but there is no formal target.<\/p>\n

A quarter of the cases have now been waiting for at least a year to reach a verdict, and more than 6,500 for two years.<\/p>\n

Victims wait on average 22 months from an offence for a verdict in a Crown Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cDelays are exacerbating the impact on victims and witnesses, as well as increasing the risk of cases collapsing,\u201d said the NAO.<\/p>\n

\u201cLonger delays mean victims and witnesses may withdraw from proceedings, or their recollection of evidence declines over time. It can also impact victims\u2019 mental wellbeing, and that of defendants awaiting trial.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Dominic Raab was justice secretary on two different occasions in the two-year period from July 2021<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The report reveals that the Criminal Justice Board, a body chaired by the justice secretary aimed at solving problems across the system, did not meet at all between July 2021 and July 2023.<\/p>\n

During that two-year period, there were four different justice secretaries, with Dominic Raab in post for 18 of those months.<\/p>\n

That lack of meetings, said the NAO, \u201creduced oversight of action to help the justice system recover from the pandemic\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Courts are running at capacity, but the backlog has still grown<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n

Prison pressures <\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The report comes as the Ministry of Justice, police and the courts are trying to reduce the number of offenders in the prison system amid an overcrowding crisis.<\/p>\n

One scheme is allowing some offenders out of jail up to 70 days before the end of their sentence – while another is attempting to slow down the rate of newly accused criminals going in.<\/p>\n

Officials told the NAO that the prison overcrowding crisis was the most pressing problem in reducing the Crown Court backlog, because there were now 16,000 people in cells waiting for a trial or to be sentenced after being found guilty – a 50-year record.<\/p>\n

The watchdog\u2019s verdict will confirm the view of many across criminal justice that the system is in crisis with no clear solution, whoever wins the general election.<\/p>\n

Tana Adkin KC, who chairs the Criminal Bar Association which represents barristers, said: \u201cThe NAO report confirms that which criminal practitioners have known for years – that the system remains in crisis without a plan for sustained investment, despite the repeated warnings.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAO\u2019s report was scheduled for publication before the general election was called on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: \u201cThe Crown Court sat for over 107,000 days last year, more days than at any point in the last seven years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are also investing more in the system, rolling out remote hearings, extending the use of Nightingale courts and recruiting hundreds of judges to get victims the justice they deserve, and put more offenders behind bars.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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1 hour ago Dominic Casciani,Home and legal correspondent, @BBCDomC PA The 2022 barristers’ strike added to the backlogs that began before the pandemic The government\u2019s target to reduce unprecedented criminal court backlogs in England and Wales cannot be met, the national spending watchdog has concluded. The National Audit Office (NAO) says the delays are affecting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35109,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[67],"tags":[1896,595,724,1868,835,3219],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35108"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35110,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35108\/revisions\/35110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}