In March 2022, the Committee found that the COVID-19 pandemic had exacerbated a growing backlog of cases waiting to be tried in the criminal courts, significantly affecting defendants, victims and witnesses. The report found that the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) meagre ambition to reduce the Crown Court case backlog by less than 8,000 cases by March 2025 was unlikely to address unacceptable delays to justice. This backlog had nearly doubled since March 2019 to around 60,000 in 2022.
The National Audit Office (NAO) is producing an update report on how the MoJ and HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) have overseen the management of cases in the Crown Court, since the NAO last reported on this topic in June 2021. The Committee’s 2023 report into progress on the courts and tribunals report programme found that HMCTS was behind on delivering critical reforms to its services, and that its roll-out of its digital case-management system had created extra problems for court staff working to address backlogs.
Based on the NAO’s report, the Committee will hear from senior officials at the MoJ and HMCTS on subjects including:
- Progress addressing backlogs;
- Workforce issues;
- Impact on victims, witnesses and defendants;
- Oversight and planning across the courts system.
If you have evidence on these issues, please submit it here by 23:59 on 29 May 2024.
Please look at the requirements for written evidence submissions and note that the Committee cannot accept material as evidence that is published elsewhere.
Please note that the Committee cannot help with individual cases.