Investment, reversing sentence inflation, holistic defence models: how to fix the UK’s criminal justice system
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Five ways to tackle the crisis and begin to eliminate court backlogs. Few would argue that the criminal justice system is not in crisis, with huge backlogs in the courts. Here are some ideas on how to fix it. Cash may seem like the simplistic option, but when the cuts to criminal legal aid have been so huge – 43% in real terms since 2004-05, according to a 2021 report – and led to a shortage of practitioners, it is no surprise that lawyers’ bodies have been united in demanding an immediate and substantial increase in fees.
More than 1,400 duty solicitors (a quarter of the total), who provide free independent legal advice to people at police stations or courts, have left practice since 2017. A recent government-commissioned report said there were insufficient criminal barristers for the number of cases.
Last year, 1,436 trials (one in 20) were cancelled in the crown courts on the day planned because of a lack of counsel, compared with 71 in 2019, according to the National Audit Office. If fees remain low compared with other areas of practice, lawyers will continue to choose them instead of crime. Sam Townend, head of the Bar Council, has said the government’s objectives to reduce violent crime and halve violence against women and girls “can only be achieved if we have appropriately remunerated barristers and solicitors working in a properly funded legal system”.
The courts are also in desperate need of investment, with crumbing buildings and not enough judges and staff. In September, the four surviving former lords chief justice of England and Wales (the most senior role in the judiciary) plus an ex-head of criminal justice put their names to a paper by the Howard League for Penal Reform, calling for a fundamental shift in sentencing policy.
