Crown Court backlogs

Public Accounts Committee Closed Inquiry
Opened: 31 Oct 2024 Closed: 16 May 2025 Parliament page
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 … Read more
4 Recommendations
28 Conclusions
1 Report
1 Oral session
3 Letters
1 Event
Activity timeline 7 events
4 Sep
2025
Correspondence
19 May
2025
Correspondence
16 May
2025
Report published
5 Mar
2025
Report published
27 Jan
2025
Correspondence
9 Jan
2025
Oral evidence
9 Jan
2025
Formal meeting (oral evidence session) · The Grimond Room, Portcullis House
Oral evidence sessions 1 session
9 Jan 2025
View on parliament.uk
Dame Antonia Romeo DCB · Ministry of Justice Daniel Flury · HM Courts and Tribunals Service Jerome Glass · Ministry of Justice Nick Goodwin · HMCTS
Title HC No. Published Items Response
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs HC 348 5 Mar 2025 32 Responded
Recommendations & Conclusions
17 results
Clear
2 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Reduce delayed or postponed serious sexual and violent offence hearings and protect victim support funding.
Long waits for cases to start, delays and the often–last–minute postponement of cases all have a significant impact on the victims of crime, particularly for victims of Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) and violent crimes, seriously disrupting their lives, … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and commits to rolling over the Rape and Sexual Abuse Support Fund and maintaining ringfenced spending for community-based sexual violence and domestic abuse support in 2025/26. It also engages regularly with providers to improve victim support, but defers further commitments to the Spending Review.
HM Treasury
View details
3 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Improve data-driven forecasting of Crown Court cases to adapt court system processes.
For some time now, MoJ has been failing to adequately forecast increases in the number and mix of cases being sent to the Crown Court, reducing its ability to plan how the courts system may need to adapt to meet … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and commits to regularly reviewing its CJS projections to incorporate latest data, interventions, and evidence, and will keep its data use under continual review. Specific actions include developing the “OneCrown” single data pipeline and reviewing future demand scenarios with the Home Office and CPS.
HM Treasury
View details
5 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Set out understanding of ineffective trial causes and required actions to address them.
The proportion of hearings that do not take place on the day they are scheduled (ineffective trials) remains far too high, and there are causes of ineffective trials that MoJ and HMCTS could be more active in addressing now. One … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and will provide the requested letter outlining its understanding of ineffective trial causes, professional capacity factors, impact of changes, and further required actions, alongside its Treasury Minute response.
HM Treasury
View details
6 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Set out total spending and impact of investments on Crown Court backlog reduction.
MoJ could not tell us which of the actions it funded from nearly £500 million of additional funding it received through the 2021 Spending Review had the biggest impact on reducing the backlog, nor could it quantify what it expects … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and will provide the requested letter detailing total spending since 2021 on reducing the Crown Court backlog, how additional funding was used for interventions, and the assessed impact of that investment, alongside its Treasury Minute response.
HM Treasury
View details
7 Recommendation Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Assure accuracy of criminal justice datasets and set out scope for courts' digitisation.
Despite MoJ assuring us that it has rectified the processing errors that led to it publishing inaccurate Crown Court statistics, we remain concerned that other datasets within the criminal justice system may be affected by the same quality and accuracy … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees and outlines its scope for further digitisation and AI, including current trials of transcription and summarisation in tribunals, past AI knowledge management trials, and plans to decommission legacy systems by Spring 2027. Future expansion of AI and data sharing improvements are contingent on Spending Review funding.
HM Treasury
View details
8 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Ministry of Justice introduced various measures to address the Crown Court backlog.
MoJ has previously introduced measures to address the backlog, including those within the 2021 Criminal Justice Action Plan.17 MoJ described current work to manage the Crown Court caseload, including: • Increasing the number of sitting days to 108,500 this year. … Read more
Government Response
The government affirms its commitment to tackling the Crown Court backlog, outlining a range of measures including funding 110,000 Crown Court sitting days for 2025-26 (an increase from the previous year), increased court maintenance, ongoing judicial recruitment, and exploring legal aid funding. It also notes that demand requires substantial reform and awaits the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts' recommendations.
HM Treasury
View details
12 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Prolonged Crown Court waits, particularly for sex cases, contribute to increased victim attrition.
MoJ acknowledges that long waits in the Crown Court are bad for everyone, including defendants, victims and the system as a whole.25 MoJ noted particular concern for victims of sex cases, which are very complex and often take a long … Read more
Government Response
The government states that ineffective trials for sexual offences are declining and that judicial practices already prioritise serious sexual offences. It also highlights continued protected funding for VAWG support services and commits to improving victim support, though future actions are contingent on the Spending Review.
HM Treasury
View details
14 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
MoJ acknowledges lengthy waits for RASSO victims and implements specific support measures.
MoJ acknowledged that the long waits for RASSO victims is “not a particularly desirable situation” and outlined some measures in place to support these victims. These measures included: • investing £41 million in sexual violence and domestic violence advisors, and … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the committee's conclusion, reiterating that judicial listing practices already prioritise serious sexual offences, and confirming continued protected funding for Violence Against Women and Girls support services for 2025/26. It also notes it cannot pre-empt the outcome of Phase 2 of the Spending Review for further improvements.
HM Treasury
View details
16 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Increasing remand lengths cause significant personal harm and risk of miscarriages of justice.
Written evidence submitted by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons stated that the length of time that people are remanded for and the extent to which this is changing is information that is not in the public domain. The Inspectorate’s evidence … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to exploring initiatives to address time spent on remand and plans to develop and publish improved data on this by April 2027. It also highlights ongoing efforts to enhance court capacity and prioritise remand cases, and will consider further steps after independent reviews.
HM Treasury
View details
18 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Ministry of Justice struggled to manage planned increase in Crown Court caseload.
MoJ attributed the increasing backlog to a “significant increase” in the rate of new cases as a result of the recruitment of over 20,000 additional police officers since 2019, and to a change in the nature of the caseload to … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the Committee's observation and is committed to regularly reviewing its projections for the Criminal Justice System, incorporating latest data, trends, and new interventions. They are also developing a 'OneCrown' single data pipeline and reviewing future demand scenarios with partners to improve accuracy.
HM Treasury
View details
19 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Crown Court backlog growing because cases conclude slower than anticipated.
The NAO report found that MoJ regularly models projections of the size of the Crown Court’s outstanding caseload, and has previously used projections from this modelling to inform decision–making on policy development, resource planning and capacity requirements.47 This modelling includes … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to regularly reviewing its Crown Court caseload projections, incorporating the latest data, trends, and interventions, and continually reviewing its use of data and assumptions. This includes developing a 'OneCrown' single data pipeline to improve data quality and coherence, and reviewing future demand scenarios with CJS partners.
HM Treasury
View details
20 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Ministry of Justice unable to forecast future Crown Court backlog, expects increase.
At our evidence session in January 2025, MoJ could not tell us what it forecast the backlog would be in 12 months’ time. It told us that it would not be right to predict what the backlog will be in … Read more
Government Response
The government agrees with the Committee's observation and is committed to regularly reviewing its projections for the Criminal Justice System, incorporating latest data, trends, and new interventions. They are also developing a 'OneCrown' single data pipeline and reviewing future demand scenarios with partners to improve accuracy.
HM Treasury
View details
25 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Ineffective trials still caused by poor case preparation and prisoner transport failures.
We heard from HMCTS of other reasons for ineffective trials that would appear to have simple solutions.68 We heard how organisations contracted to transport prisoners fail to get all defendants from prison to court on time, incurring a financial penalty … Read more
Government Response
The government states it agrees with the Committee's conclusions and claims the underlying recommendation regarding issues causing ineffective trials, such as prisoner transport and case preparation, has been implemented as of April 2025, with further details provided in a separate letter.
HM Treasury
View details
29 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Missed opportunity to fund maximum court sitting days exacerbated backlog
In evidence to the Justice Committee in November 2024, the Lady Chief Justice described how the concordat agreement with MoJ for 2024–25, agreed under the previous administration, had provided for 106,000 sitting days. She reported that in August HMCTS had … Read more
Government Response
The government commits to funding 110,000 Crown Court sitting days in 2025-26, the highest allocation ever, and outlines various other ongoing initiatives such as judicial recruitment, increased legal aid funding, and court maintenance to reduce the backlog. It also states it awaits recommendations from the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts for longer-term reform.
HM Treasury
View details
30 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Crown Court caseload data previously unreliable due to Common Platform errors
MoJ confirmed that it had identified three factors that caused it to pause publication of its Crown Court caseload data from June to December 2024. It had found that case records in Common Platform (the new digital case management system … Read more
Government Response
The government confirms the external review found confidence in Crown Court caseload statistics and details improvements made to magistrates’ caseload data measurement, including revisions due to identified issues in legacy systems. It also notes ongoing investigation for further remedial action for a small number of legacy cases.
HM Treasury
View details
31 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Accuracy of criminal and civil court data, including remand population, remains questionable
Despite these assurances, we concur with a request from the Law Society of England and Wales in its written submission to us for confirmation from MoJ that other data and statistics across the criminal and civil courts are not similarly … Read more
Government Response
The government confirms confidence in Crown Court caseload statistics and details improvements made to magistrates’ caseload data, noting previous overstatements due to legacy system issues and committing to further revisions for additional legacy cases in the future. It also states that other caseload elements like police recorded crime are for other government departments.
HM Treasury
View details
32 Conclusion Accepted
12th Report - Crown Court backlogs
Common Platform system operation has vastly improved and is now reliable
We were relieved to hear from HMCTS that the operation of Common Platform has “vastly improved” over the last few years, describing it as a “a good and stable system”, and that HMCTS now has confidence in the system’s reliability.89 … Read more
Government Response
The government confirms continued trials of AI in courts and tribunals, though scaling up is dependent on future Spending Review funding. It also outlines plans for further digitisation, including decommissioning legacy systems (Xhibit and Libra) by Spring 2027 to reduce dual-keying, and exploring improved integration between case management systems.
HM Treasury
View details
Government Response AI assessment · 31 of 4 classified
Accepted 17
Accepted in Part 3
Acknowledged 5
Deferred 6
Total 4 recs + 28 conclusions
Correspondence 3 letters
4 Sep 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive at HM Prison and Probation Service and the Chief Executive at HM Courts and Tribunal Service relating to a follow up on the responses to the 12th and 15th Reports of Session 2024-25, Crown Court backlogs and Prison estate capacity, 15 July 2025
Parliament page
19 May 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive of HM Courts & Tribunals Service relating to the 12th Report of Session 2024-25, Crown Court Backlog, Recommendation 5, 08 May 2025
Parliament page
27 Jan 2025 To committee Letter from the Chief Executive at HM Courts and Tribunals Service relating to the Crown Courts Backlog oral evidence session held on 09 January 2025, 22 January 2025
Parliament page