Gove: Justice system is badly failing crime victims

COURTS are offering a “gold standard” to the wealthy from around the world but failing vulnerable British victims of crime, Michael Gove will warn today.

In his first speech since being appointed Justice Secretary last month, Mr Gove will attack the “creaking” legal system that makes crime victims “suffer twice”.

The no-holds-barred speech, which will be seen as a direct confrontation with the legal establishment, will attack “wasteful” courts and condemn them for adding to the pain of crime victims.

Mr Gove’s comments indicate that he intends to tackle the legal system with the same energy he deployed to overhaul schools, when he earned a combative reputation as education secretary.

The speech, which draws on personal observation of court proceedings by Mr Gove since his appointment, will highlight a litany of failures in what he describes as “outdated” criminal courts, and say the human cost of failings by the legal system is “unforgivable”.

Mr Gove will express deep frustration at how rape victims are often forced to wait years for justice, while the poorest in society – who are more likely to be victims of crime – also suffer disproportionately.

In the first indication of his reform plans, he will call for wide-ranging modernisation to speed up work in the criminal courts in England and Wales.

The Justice Secretary will say: “While those with money can secure the finest legal provision in the world, the reality in our courts for many of our citizens is that the justice system is failing them. Badly.

“There are two nations in our justice system at present.

“On the one hand, the wealthy international class who can choose to settle cases in London with the gold standard of British justice.

“And then everyone else, who has to put up with a creaking, outdated system to see justice done in their own lives.

“The people who are let down most badly by our justice system are those who must take part in it through no fault or desire of their own: victims and witnesses of crime, and children who have been neglected.”

Court cases and arbitration by oligarchs, foreign companies and other overseas claimants brought in £3.5billion to the British economy, according to figures published in 2013, with foreign litigation seen as a growth “export”.

However, such cases are privately funded and lawyers are likely to be critical of Mr Gove’s decision to compare them with publicly funded criminal cases.

The previous Coalition government faced tough opposition from the legal establishment to cuts in the criminal sector, particularly to legal aid budgets.

The speech, to the Legatum Institute in central London, will highlight specific examples of the criminal justice system’s failures, drawn from several private visits Mr Gove has made to crown courts in Southwark, south London, and Nottingham, in recent weeks.

“I have seen barristers struggle to explain why a young woman who had the courage to press a rape charge should have had to wait nearly two years before her case was heard,” he will say.

“Reporting these offences in the first place must be a traumatic experience – made worse still by having to relive it in court two years later.

“I have watched as judges question advocates about the most basic procedural preliminaries in what should be straightforward cases and find that no one in court can provide satisfactory answers.

“I have heard too many accounts of cases derailed by the late arrival of prisoners, broken video links or missing paperwork.”

Mr Gove will say prosecutions need to be more efficient, ensuring “unnecessary procedures” are cut out, and will suggest that the justice system could do more by email or conference call rather than by holding court hearings.

“Then we can make sure that more time can be spent on ensuring the court hears high-quality advocacy rather than excuses for failure,” he will say.

“The waste and inefficiency inherent in such a system are obvious. But perhaps even more unforgivable is the human cost.

“It is the poorest in our society who are disproportionately the victims of crime, and who find themselves at the mercy of this creaking and dysfunctional system.

“Women who have the bravery to report domestic violence, assault and

responsible for thousands of deaths. Prof Willie Hamilton, an expert in early diagnosis from the University of Exeter, and one of the authors of the new guidelines, said: “Britain is lagging behind other countries in terms of cancer survival and one of the big reasons for this is late diagnosis. In my experience, I would say that late diagnosis alone is responsible for thousands of deaths every year.

“This updated guideline will help to change that. It will open the door for smarter testing so that people with cancer will receive their diagnosis much earlier. There is no doubt in my mind that this guideline will help to save lives.”

Britain is eighth from bottom in league tables comparing cancer survival in 35 Western nations, research shows. For some cancers, such as cervical disease, women in Slovenia and the Czech Republic are far more likely to be alive five years after diagnosis.

Almost half of cancers are diagnosed at an advanced stage, when treatment is less likely to work. The new guidance for GPs lists hundreds of symptoms that could mean cancer and tells doctors which type could be signalled, tests to run and how quickly.

Prof Mark Baker, Nice’s clinical practice director, said that GPs had not been given enough help to identify potential cancers. “They’d have to guess, basically,” he said. “If they guessed right, great, if they guessed wrong, they didn’t know what to do.”

Prof Baker added: “The gap between the UK experience and some of our typical partners in Europe is about equivalent to 10,000 lives lost which could be saved.”

While most GPs know what to do about obvious signs of cancer such as breast lumps and coughing up blood, other more subtle signals such as abdominal pain were more likely to be missed, he said.

Roger Goss, from Patient Concern, said he was surprised that doctors needed to be given such advice. “I would be quite worried if GPs don’t know the basics of common cancers and what to look out for,” he said.

An NHS England spokesman said: “Cancer survival is at an all-time high, but catching cancer early gives patients the best chance of beating it.”

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