The Department explained that victims of rape and serious sexual offences had been particularly affected by the pandemic. These difficult and complex cases are more likely to need a jury trial, which need space to accommodate the jury. It was more challenging to hear jury trials during the period when social distancing was in place given the additional space needed to hear trials safely.29 As a result the number of such cases waiting longer than a year increased by 435% between March 2020 and June 2021.30 Since March 2021, the number of rape and serious sexual offence cases in the backlog actually fell, though the 25 Qq59–61; C&AG’s Report, para 2.12 26 Qq59–60 27 Qq59–61 28 Qq62–68 29 Q38 30 C&AG’s Report, para 9 12 Reducing the backlog in criminal courts Department accepted the number needs to come down much further.31 The Department published its end-to-end rape review in June 2021 which set out actions to increase the number of rape and serious sexual offence cases being prosecuted and convicted, which could add further pressure on the courts.32 The Department said that it was too early to assess the impact of its rape review on cases in the backlog.33