The lord chancellor is facing growing pressure from MPs to tackle the court backlog after it emerged during a parliamentary debate that people living in poverty are waiting months for their benefit appeals to be heard and crime victims are considering withdrawing their cases.
Gideon Amos, Liberal Democrat MP for Taunton and Wellington, told the Commons during justice questions yesterday that he had received a letter from a tribunal judge and court worker about the impact of a cap on sitting days.
‘The tribunal judge said “tribunals are being cancelled every day as they say there are not enough judges to cover the cases. That is absolutely not the case… People are waiting months for their benefit appeals in appalling poverty and again we cannot deal with the cases because of this limit",’ Amos said.
Rebecca Smith, Conservative MP for South West Devon, told ministers that Truro Crown Court has been forced to shut one day a week due to budget cuts and sitting day limits. ‘Some cases have already been postponed until late 2025, including lengthy cases that involve victims of violence, and it is prompting those victims to consider withdrawing their cases,’ Smith said.
Shaun Davies, Labour MP for Telford, said the number of magistrates covering Telford and wider Shropshire had fallen from 91 to 76 over the last five years, half of the court sessions went unused in 2022, and victims at the Crown court were waiting an average of 18 months, with some sexual offences taking up to three years to be dealt with.
Ministers told the MPs that the lord chancellor had increased the Crown court sitting day allocation by a further 500 days, 1,000 judges and tribunal members were being recruited and independent legal advocates will be introduced in the new year to advise rape complainants from report to trial.
Recently appointed justice minister Sarah Sackman added that the government understood the scale of the problem and was ready to confront it with 'fundamental reforms'.
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