Crown courts are at “breaking point” and there will be 100,000 outstanding criminal cases by 2028, a minister has warned, as the backlog reaches a new record high.
Official figures published on Thursday show there were 76,957 open cases waiting to be heard at the end of March, up 11 per cent on the previous year. A quarter of those — some 18,093 cases — have already been open for a year or more.
