Three years for a rape case to come to trial, five for an alleged money-laundering plot and seven for a purported expenses fiddle. Our justice system is not creaking but cracking. Victims, defendants and witnesses regularly face delays stretching for years as a result of backlogs in our courts. New figures show London’s courts are dealing with a quarter of the delays, up from 20 per cent four years ago.
Across England and Wales, the number of cases waiting to be heard has almost doubled in the last four years. The pandemic was a contributing factor, as was the bitter battle between barristers and the Ministry of Justice over legal aid fees. But the crisis is also about funding and staffing. The data reveals that 184 trials in the capital — and 531 nationally — could not be held last year because there was no available prosecutor or judge.
