Victims, witnesses and defendants are waiting years for justice as London’s courts are weighed down by a quarter of the national criminal case backlog, new figures reveal.
The number of cases waiting to be heard has nearly doubled across England and Wales in the past four years, thanks to funding cutbacks, the pandemic and a feud between barristers and government over legal aid rates. In London, fresh data shows the capital’s crown courts are dealing with more than a quarter of the 60,898 backlog, compared with a 20 per cent share four years ago.
