The Court of Appeal is facing ‘unrelenting’ pressure from increased demand and reduced resources, the lord chief justice has warned.

In his foreword to the court’s annual report, published today, Lord Justice Judge (pictured) paid tribute to the judges who work ‘late into the night and at weekends’ to cope with the burdens placed on them and ensure they are fully prepared for hearings.

Judge slammed the ‘continuing burden of comprehending and applying impenetrable legislation’, and said the search for legislative intention makes ‘unreasonable demands on the intellectual efforts of judges and lawyers’.

He said ‘the search for principle takes longer and longer, and in the meantime cases awaiting trial are delayed’, to the detriment of defendants, witnesses and victims.

Judge predicted that the problem will remain in the year ahead as the judiciary struggles to follow the legislative intention which removed the former partial defence of provocation in relation to murder, and replaced it with the new concept of ‘loss of control’, with its qualifying triggers.

The court’s annual report shows that it dealt with a rising number of appeals against conviction in the last legal year.

Between October 2009 and September 2010, the court heard 488 full conviction appeals, up 13% on the previous year, and 2,136 full sentence appeals, 13% more than in 2008/09.

Over a three-year period, 12% of conviction appeals and 28% of sentence appeals were successful.