Forty-Third Report - Reducing the backlog in criminal courts
Select Committee
Public Accounts Committee
HC 643
9 March 2022
Recommendations
1 results
6
Accepted
We recognise the long overdue move towards bringing data on the criminal justice system together,...
Recommendation
We recognise the long overdue move towards bringing data on the criminal justice system together, although it is not clear how the Department will use this to improve performance. In December 2021, the Department published a national scorecard and an …
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Government Response Summary
The government published local criminal justice system scorecards in March 2022 and will publish them quarterly to increase transparency and support collaboration. It will also use the data to identify disparities and share best practices, with plans to improve data quality and metrics.
HM Treasury
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Conclusions (9) Observations and findings — click to expand
9
Conclusion
Accepted
In the meantime, the Department is relying on using part-time judges (recorders) to provide the additional judicial capacity it needs. It recruited 104 crime recorders in the last recruitment round, and is looking to expand numbers further significantly. The Department told us that currently recorders are not working as many …
Government Response Summary
The government is already addressing the shortfall in judicial capacity by increasing Recorder recruitment, allowing crime Recorders to sit more days, and approving District Judges and Circuit Judges to sit in retirement.
11
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department expects that the demand for prison places will increase significantly. Its plans to increase the number of days that the Crown Court hears cases, and the resultant reduction in the backlog, will likely mean more people being convicted and sent to prison. The recruitment of an additional 20,000 …
Government Response Summary
The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed, investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s and continues to invest in critical maintenance projects to ensure as many prison places as possible are kept online.
12
Conclusion
Accepted
In July 2021, the Department estimated that its court recovery plan and the increase in police officers would result in a shortfall of 4,000 prison places by the end of 2023, over and above the 18,000 additional prison places that HM Treasury had already agreed to fund as part of …
Government Response Summary
The government is committed to building as many prison places as are needed, investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s and continues to invest in critical maintenance projects to ensure as many prison places as possible are kept online.
13
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department described how it is tightly managing the prison build programme to ensure there is sufficient capacity, including closely monitoring the delivery of new prison places against the demand for those places. The Department told us that HM Treasury and the Infrastructure and Projects Authority are also closely involved, …
Government Response Summary
The government states it is already committed to building as many prison places as needed, investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s, and has delivered around 2,700 already.
14
Conclusion
Accepted
We have reported previously on matters concerning the expansion and maintenance of the prison system. For example, in September 2020 we found that the Department had delivered just 206 new prison places, against a commitment of 10,000 new-for-old places by 2020.22 In March 2021, we reported that the 2019 Spending …
Government Response Summary
The government states it is already committed to building as many prison places as needed, investing £3.8 billion to deliver 20,000 modern prison places by the mid-2020s, and has delivered around 2,700 already.
19
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department explained how the longer victims wait for their case to be heard in court, the greater the risk the victim withdraws their support of the process and the case collapses.34 It told us that the proportion of cases collapsing through victim or witness attrition fell in the last …
Government Response Summary
The government states the first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, with quarterly publication to increase transparency and support collaboration.
21
Conclusion
Accepted
The Department told us that having good data across the criminal justice system is a crucial first step in achieving the right outcomes and bringing the courts backlog down. In December 2021, the Department published two scorecards—one covering all crime and one covering adult rape—that bring together data on performance …
Government Response Summary
The government states the first local criminal justice system scorecards for all crime and adult rape were published in March 2022, with quarterly publication to increase transparency and support collaboration.
22
Conclusion
Accepted
We asked HMCTS what progress it had made on implementing Dr Natalie Byrom’s recommendations on digital justice and data.44 HMCTS told us it had set up a senior data governance panel to provide advice on the accessibility of data and will announce in early 2022 what data it intends to …
Government Response Summary
The government published the first local criminal justice system scorecards in March 2022 and will publish them quarterly to increase transparency and support collaboration, also overhauling its governance structures to increase accountability and drive forward progress in priority areas.
23
Conclusion
Accepted
We asked the Department what it is doing to improve data flows across different parts of the criminal justice system. The Department told us that joining up data across the system is a priority.49 It has recruited an additional director of analysis and is recruiting a director-general of performance strategy …
Government Response Summary
The government states that it is already taking forward work to improve data flows across the criminal justice system, including establishing a new data and performance board and recruiting key personnel.