Two thirds of trials stall or fail in justice ‘meltdown’

CRIME victims are being failed by a justice system that is in meltdown, a report says today.

MPs on a cross-party panel launch a scathing attack on the system, which they say is ‘close to breaking point’.

Over the 12 months to last September, two thirds of crown court trials in were either delayed or did not go ahead at all, said Parliament’s spending watchdog. And 51,380 cases were still awaiting a crown court hearing last September – an increase of 12,341, or nearly a third, in two years.

The Public Accounts Committee’s withering report says the system is ‘not good enough’ at supporting victims and witnesses, who are often reluctant to endure the ordeal of a court case.

Victims now face an average 134-day wait between their case leaving the magistrates’ court and the start of a crown court trial, up from 99 days in 2013. And only 55 per cent of witnesses said they would be prepared to put themselves through the pressure of giving evidence in court, with one in five being made to wait more than four hours to take the stand.

In a blistering assessment, the committee said the criminal justice system – which involves police forces, prosecutors, courts, lawyers and witness services – was ‘bedevilled by long-standing poor performance’.

In the year to September, 1.7million offences were dealt with in the courts. Spending on the system, excluding police, prisons and the Crown Prosecution Service, is £2billion a year.

But this had plunged by 26 per cent since 2010-11. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has also been ordered to slash its budget by a further 15 per cent by 2019-20. Yet the Legal Aid Agency spent nearly £100million on cases that did not go to trial and the figure for the CPS was £21million.

The report will make grim reading for Justice Secretary Michael Gove who has demanded a prisons revolution, bolstering rehabilitation, and is investing £700million in technology to make the justice system swifter.

The committee welcomed the shake-up but warned that the MoJ had ‘exhausted the scope to cut costs without pushing the system beyond breaking point’.

Chairman Meg Hillier said: ‘An effective criminal justice system is a cornerstone of civil society but ours is at risk. Too little thought has been given to the consequences of cutbacks with the result that the system’s ability to deliver justice is under threat.’

An MoJ spokesman said it was introducing ‘comprehensive measures’ to improve prisons and courts, backed by more than £ 2billion of investment.