Backlog undermines justice

Recently published official criminal court statistics for April to June 2021 show an estimated 60,692 outstanding cases in the crown courts and 364,122 outstanding cases in the magistrates’ courts at the end of the quarter. In respect of crown courts, this represents a 40 per cent increase on the previous year. Around a fifth of the cases have been outstanding for a year or more. Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said: “The… statistics reflect that to date no significant inroads have been made”.