Law Society concerned over Crown Court backlog

The HM Courts and Tribunals Service published on 9 February the latest statistics on the workload and timeliness for criminal, civil and family courts, and tribunals. The figures for December 2022 show outstanding cases in the magistrates’ courts have risen from 337,805 in November to 342,180 in December; the Crown Court backlog has decreased from 62,297 in November to 61,737 in December. Law Society of England and Wales President Lubna Shuja comments, “While the latest figures show a small dent in the Crown Court backlog, progress is still at a snail’s pace. The government must fix our broken court buildings and invest in judges, lawyers and court staff if it is serious about law and order.”