Courts reform expected as murder trial backlog soars

Ministers are poised to pave the way for major criminal justice reform after new figures seen by The Independent revealed the dire state of the courts system.

- DAVID MADDOX

Details of a major review are expected to be unveiled by justice ministers tomorrow as they wrestle with average waiting times for trials which are at their longest for more than a decade. Among the catastrophic details revealed are:

• Rape victims have to wait on average almost a year (48 weeks) to have their day in court

• The average waiting times for court dates for rape, murder and GBH trials all rose by at least 12 weeks – three months – between 2014 and 2023

• There were 36 murder trials delayed last year, an increase of 350 per cent since 2014 when just eight required rescheduling

• In 2021, the Conservatives promised to cut the court backlog by 7,000 cases by March 2025 but on their watch, it actually increased by more than 7,000

Already a review into sentencing is being carried out by Tory exjustice secretary David Gauke, but further initiatives are set to be announced this week.

The figures have ballooned since the courts were in effect shut down during the Covid lockdown but efforts by the previous government to reduce the backlog only saw it get worse.