2025 – the year ahead in criminal justice

Courts

As readers can be effectively conscious, the backlog within the courts can be at unprecedented ranges. The newest information which reveals the Crown Court docket backlog on 30 September 2024 illustrates the dimensions of the issue: there are 73,105 open instances in comparison with 40,862 in January 2020, instantly earlier than the pandemic. Regardless of quite a few initiatives, the backlog grew by over 10% within the final 12 months. You possibly can see the detailed figures under. The Authorities has dedicated to extra courtroom sitting days within the 12 months forward however is conscious that many courts are usually not open to their present full capability due to a scarcity of authorized representatives. 

It has additionally introduced an Unbiased Overview of the Legal Courts to be carried out by Sir Brian Leveson, Former President of the Queen’s Bench Division and. maybe finest identified to the general public at giant for chairing the general public inquiry into the tradition, apply and ethics of the British press within the aftermath of the telephone hacking revelations. Promising “daring pondering”, the evaluation is predicted to make basic modifications resembling reclassifying plenty of offences to allow them to be heard by Magistrates’ Courts or new “intermediate courts” the place instances may very well be heard by a choose flanked by magistrates, in an try to hurry up the size of trials. These would apply to some prison instances which are too critical for magistrates courts however are now not deemed critical sufficient for the crown courtroom.