Court backlogs continue to rise (Spring 2025)

Crown Courts

The elevated throughput from the magistrates’ courts as a part of the preliminary restoration from the pandemic response noticed the amount of receipts (new circumstances) on the Crown Court docket exceed pre-COVID ranges in late 2020. Following a slight decline, receipts have tended to extend since 2023, surpassing ranges seen instantly pre-COVID and people seen in 2016.

There have been 29,485 circumstances obtained into the Crown Court docket within the final quarter of 2024. That is the best This fall (October – December) worth seen throughout the sequence since 2016 and represents an 8% enhance on the earlier 12 months.

In 2024, there have been 121,579 circumstances obtained into the Crown Court docket, that is the best annual whole reported throughout the sequence since 2016 and is 13% larger than volumes seen in 2023 (107,433).

The newest enhance in demand on the Crown Court docket was seen extra in “for trial” (11%) than “sentence” (6%) or attraction circumstances (-16%).

There have been will increase in receipts for all offence teams (excluding possession of weapons) in comparison with the earlier 12 months, with violence in opposition to the particular person (9%), sexual offences (15%) and drug offences (9%) contributing most to the general enhance.

Violence in opposition to the particular person offences proceed to be the most important contributing offence group with 8,378 receipts within the interval – this represents a rise of 42% in comparison with This fall 2019 and now accounts for 28% of all circumstances obtained within the quarter.

There have been 28,143 cased disposed on the Crown Court docket in This fall 2024, that is the best This fall (October – December) worth seen throughout the sequence. The newest disposal volumes are up 7% on ranges seen within the earlier 12 months (26,257) and nicely above these seen in This fall 2019 (23,132).

In 2024, there have been 113,885 circumstances disposed of on the Crown Court docket, that is the best annual whole reported since 2016 (120,143) and is 12% larger than volumes seen in 2023 (102,022).

The biggest proportionate enhance was seen for “sentence” circumstances which elevated by 13% on the earlier 12 months, whereas “for trial” circumstances elevated by 5%.

Will increase in disposal volumes are seen for all offence teams (excluding drug offences) in comparison with the earlier 12 months. Just like the traits in case receipts there was a notable and constant enhance in violence in opposition to the particular person circumstances.

The open caseload displays the workload within the courts at any time. It should by no means be zero, because it displays the amount of circumstances which can be energetic within the courts at a specific level, together with these circumstances which were not too long ago obtained, these near being disposed, these that are complicated and take time to finish and people which may be delayed. The open caseload fell between 2016 and 2019, and on the finish of 2019 it stood at 38,049.

On the finish of December 2024 there have been 74,651 open circumstances on the Crown Court docket, it is a sequence excessive and continues will increase seen since Q1 2023.

The open caseload elevated by 2% on the earlier quarter (73,172 circumstances) and 11% on the earlier 12 months (67,317 circumstances).

The biggest will increase within the open caseload in comparison with the earlier 12 months had been seen for violence in opposition to the particular person (21%) and sexual offences (18%).

The will increase in open caseload volumes might be seen for all areas, with the South East reporting the most important open caseload on the finish of December 2024 (16,114 circumstances).

Ineffective trials

One of many principal causes for the growing log is the ineffectiveness of the Crown Court docket system.

There have been 6,933 trials listed to start out in This fall 2024 – a lower of 6% on the identical quarter within the earlier 12 months. The proportion of trials which start as deliberate (efficient) remained secure at 43%, this has been pretty constant for the final two years nevertheless it stays beneath charges seen pre-COVID which common round 50%.

Equally, the proportion of trials that aren’t required (cracked) and that are rescheduled (ineffective) remained according to the earlier quarter (31% and 25% respectively). There was a considerable deterioration within the ineffective trial fee on ranges seen previous to 2020 (ranging round 13-19% or about half the present fee) and charges have stabilised at these larger ranges.