'Court system is creaking' warns Justice Committee as raft of improvement measures are issued in new report

The Justice Committee has called on the Government to do more to tackle the lengthy backlog facing the court system and in a report published this morning (Wednesday), the Committee warns that while innovations in the court system are welcome it will require strategic planning and long-term resourcing to address the number of cases waiting to be heard.

At present, staffing levels, particularly the number of judges, and the state of court buildings are insufficient to support the level of capacity necessary to cope with the demands placed on the court system, it has said.

A raft of key findings and recommendations have been listed in the report relating to staffing, the physical estate, inspection, data collection and transparency, innovation, crown courts and family courts.

Cases can only be heard if there are sufficient judicial and clerical staff, so the Government needs to ensure recruitment of judges to areas with the greatest capacity issues and review pay levels; hearings can only take place in buildings that are fit for purpose so it is recommended to bring forward a comprehensive plan to deliver essential maintenance without reducing capacity and the Ministry of Justice also needs to plan and deliver long term maintenance of courts.

The collection of data is also not currently sufficient to identify where there are problems and to inform decision-making. Score-cards are suggested as a way to identify where there are serious issues at a local level and targets should be set that include the average time taken from an offence being recorded to a case being completed for specific offences including rape.

Greater cross-governmental attention will be needed to deal with the growing number of cases coming to family courts, specifically for separating couples and their children, and that while technology has played an important role in improving how the justice system operates, the practical and procedural implications should be thoroughly reviewed before further rollout.

There is also specific mention of crown courts which follows an announcement earlier this week that the cap on sitting days for crown courts would be lifted again for this financial year in a bid to tackle the backlog. A similar move last year led to 17,000 more court days being created.

However, the Justice Committee says the backlog of Crown Court cases will only be dealt with if a significantly higher number of trials are able to take place each month and the government should set out how many trials need to take place each month if its target of reducing the backlog to 53,000 by March 2025 is to be achieved.

It also said the decision to reduce the number of sitting days in 2019 was "a mistake" and should serve as a lesson for future decision making on court capacity.

The report did note that the willingness of the Government and the Judiciary to investigate new ways of working, was to be welcomed in that Nightingale courts have proven effective in increasing capacity quickly, the Mediation Voucher Scheme has provided alternative avenues to settle family cases and video and remote hearings proved effective in continuing justice during the pandemic.

However, it added that they were still insufficient.

Chair of the Justice Committee Sir Bob Neill said: “In response to the huge backlog facing courts an impressive commitment to innovation has emerged. The speed with which Nightingale Courts have been established, the use of digital technology and attempts to boost mediation instead of going to family court are all welcome. However, this alone will not have the necessary impact to tackle the scale of the capacity issues facing courts.

“The Government must work with the Judiciary to ensure that there is sufficient staff and court space to allow trials to take place and the lengthy backlog to reduce. The physical estate has been left to crumble for too long and must be made fit for purpose. There must be sufficient numbers of judicial and clerical staff to cope with the volume of cases.

“Understanding of the demand on courts needs to improve so that long-term planning can be based on an accurate picture of likely demand. Data should be collected of sufficient quality to allow long-term trends to be understood. There also needs to be better oversight of performance with key parts of the justice system currently without any inspection regime in place.

“The court system is creaking and there needs to be coherent, consistent planning to fix it.”