Dozens of trials for violence and sexual offence cases are being abandoned on the day they're due to start due to shortages of prosecutors, fresh analysis reveals.
The number of Crown Court trials not taking place when they're meant to because of there not being a prosecutor available has increased by a massive 14 times compared with three years ago, research shows.
Survivors of serious offences are being forced to wait months for a new start date after already having faced massive delays for their trial to begin.
Latest figures, for July to September last year, reveal 62,766 outstanding cases in the Crown Court - the highest on record.
Analysis by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) shows that over the 15 months to September 2022, 364 Crown Court trials were aborted on the day they were listed to begin due to no prosecutor being available, compared with 26 trials during the same period three years ago.
It said nearly half of these involved violence and sexual offence cases.
Shadow Justice Secretary Steve Reed said: “Following chronic mismanagement, we have the biggest courts backlog on record and a record low in the number of criminals being brought to justice.
“Crown prosecution staff numbers have fallen since 2010, leaving the system powerless to keep up with the skyrocketing number of cases. The Conservatives have waved the white flag to criminals and left communities to pay the price."
Farah Nazeer, Chief Executive of Women’s Aid, said: “It is shocking that domestic abuse prosecutions continue to be dropped. Today’s statistics also show that the number of convictions which are dropped because of ‘victim and witness issues’ is continuing to increase, showing the scale of the challenges that survivors face when going through the criminal courts.
“A successful criminal justice system must both support survivors of abuse and hold perpetrators to account, but at the moment, this just isn’t happening.”
A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) spokesman suggested the barrister strikes, staged by the CBA between June and October last year, were to blame.
They said: “Whilst there was an increase in the crown court backlog during the barrister strikes, we have worked hard to reduce the caseload since.”
The CBA staged walkouts precisely because it was fighting for the future of the criminal justice system, which is suffering chronic staff shortages.
It says a quarter of specialist criminal barristers have been lost over the last five years.
Barristers both prosecute and defend in Crown Court trials.
Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “There is a crisis of lack of prosecutors, which seems to disproportionately impact trials of serious violence and sexual offences due to barrister shortages, lack of increase of fees for prosecution barristers in over 15 years and lack of required payment for the new government pre-recording evidence policy.
“The lack of barristers to prosecute means that justice in allegations such as rape has become a victim itself of government chronic underfunding.
“The result of prosecution shortages is that trials are not able to go ahead and are adjourned for months or years or do not proceed as witnesses, victims and complainants give up. This is not a functioning justice system.”
The MoJ added: “We are doing all we can to ensure courts are working at full capacity. Measures such as unlimited sitting days and increasing magistrates’ sentencing powers are helping restore the swift access to justice that victims deserve.”
Follow Mirror Politics on Snapchat , Tiktok , Twitter and Facebook .
