Law Society research submitted to the government last week has identified a ‘lack of communication’ pervading the justice system that is causing delays throughout the process.

The survey of 245 individuals in the justice system, including 172 defence solicitors and 55 prosecutors, showed that respondents attributed the biggest delays to the police.

Two significant causes of delay identified were the lack of availability of police officers to deal with defendants when they had been bailed back to the police station, and the failure by police to provide ‘advanced information’ to defence teams.

Failings by prosecutors, including not following disclosure rules, turning up to court without files, and not complying with court orders, were cited as the next most common causes of delay.

Survey respondents suggested that the use of associate prosecutors (APs) was slowing down cases.

Delays were reported where APs had been assigned to cases without authority to make a decision; and where senior prosecutors had to be called away from other courtrooms to assist APs or act in a supervisory capacity, thereby delaying their own cases.

The system is also hampered by multiple cases being listed at the same time, failures by the Probation Service to supply pre-sentence reports, and failures by the Prison Service to produce defendants at court, respondents suggested.

Witnesses failing to attend court at the correct time, and prosecutors having to leave the courtroom to call their own witnesses due to a lack of court staff, were also cited as problems.

Respondents suggested that an overall lack of communication pervaded the entire justice process.

Defence solicitors also highlighted the difficulties caused by the length of time taken to get a decision on legal aid from the Legal Services Commission, which resulted in many unnecessary trips to court to repeatedly adjourn hearings.

Survey respondents were asked to provide a snapshot of their experiences over a two-week period last November.

Just 8.7% reported no delay at all in their cases.

The research was submitted to government last week as part of the Law Society’s response to the green paper on legal aid reform.

Chancery Lane’s submission was approved by the Law Society council last week, along with its response to the MoJ’s civil justice costs consultation.

The Law Society site has the full survey.