As we report today, industrial action by members of the PCS union employed by the Ministry of Justice would have a far-reaching effect on the justice system.

Participants would have the satisfaction of knowing that the withdrawal of their labour would be expensive for an exchequer intent on making dramatic cuts.

Leaving aside the rights and wrongs of this particular dispute, the ways in which industrial action would be costly have some powerful lessons for public policy.

Take the Crown Court as an example.

Statistics show that around 60% of defendants remanded in custody who plead ‘not guilty’ are either acquitted, or not proceeded against.

With their court appearance delayed, those defendants occupy expensive prison places waiting for a day in court that will see them freed.

As HM Inspector of Constabulary argued on this page last year, the savings from a criminal justice system that simply works quicker would be hefty.

Kenneth Clarke’s now seemingly doomed proposals on sentencing also recognise that it is better for its health to re-engineer the justice system than ‘salami-slice’ the savings it is expected to deliver.

Whatever goes wrong in the criminal justice system as a result of industrial action is worth watching.

It could tell us much about what should be done to meet the demands of an austere fiscal environment.

Read the PCS union article.