A legal logjam

SIR – Doubling the maximum sentencing powers of magistrates (report, October 9), while inducing some defendants to surrender their right to be tried by their peers in a Crown Court, will have negligible impact on the current logjam of 60,000 cases. Such suggestions fail to acknowledge the monumental scale of the crisis enveloping our criminal justice system.

The Crown Court remains the only venue where justice can be delivered and where severe sentences can be imposed for those cases that are creating the longest delay. The misery of waiting years to be heard affects victims, defendants and witnesses alike. It long predates last year’s disruption to our courts caused by the pandemic, but has rocketed since then because the Government failed to heed repeated warnings from those of us who could see the crisis looming.

The contraction in the capacity of our courts to deal with the business of justice has been compounded by a steady exodus of criminal prosecutors and defenders, following years of declining real incomes and relentless work pressures. The depleted numbers that remain are overstretched and simply unable to shift the backlog at the speed required.

All that will be achieved by giving magistrates the power to lock people up for longer is to increase the number of appeals to the Crown Court, thereby clogging up the system even more, and critically overloading the few criminal advocates we have left.

The only workable, long-term solution is to reverse years of underfunding right across the criminal justice system.

Jo Sidhu QC

Chair, Criminal Bar Association

Kirsty Brimelow QC

Vice Chair, Criminal Bar Association London WC1