Promoting junior prosecutors will help clear courts backlog, says Labour

Emily Thornberry, the shadow attorney general, called for ‘can-do, common-sense’ action to clear the backlog. Photograph: Jeff Overs/BBC/Reuters

Ministers have been told to “get the wheels of justice turning” again by allowing more legal specialists to serve as crown prosecutors to help clear the courts backlog.

With record numbers of outstanding cases in magistrates and crown courts in England and Wales, the shadow attorney general, Emily Thornberry, said the more junior associate prosecutors were “not being used to the maximum extent possible” in crown courts due to an “unnecessary and outdated legal restriction”.