Independent Review of the Criminal Courts: Part 1 Report

Shabana Mahmood Excerpts

Wednesday 9th July 2025 Written Statements

[The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice (Shabana Mahmood)]

This Government inherited a justice system in crisis with huge delays to hearings and victims left in limbo waiting to see justice done. To bear down on the backlog and deliver swifter justice for victims, I commissioned Sir Brian Leveson to undertake a review of criminal courts.

I welcome the work that Sir Brian has done on the first part of his review, focused on longer-term reform to criminal courts. I look forward to the second part, which will consider the efficiency and timeliness of court processes, through charge to case completion.

I am grateful to Sir Brian for all his work up to this point. I will place a copy of the part 1 report in the Library of the House.

This Government strongly agree with Sir Brian’s finding that the criminal justice system this Government inherited was broken. As of March 2025, the outstanding caseload in the Crown court is at a record high of 76,957. This is over double the number of open cases at any point in 2019.

Justice delayed is justice denied, and as projections in Sir Brian’s report suggest, by March 2029 open cases could reach new heights of 105,000 if we do not act.

Sir Brian is right that a crisis of this scale requires action of equal magnitude. Greater financial investment on its own is not enough: radical and systemic reform is needed.

I welcome the bold and ambitious recommendations Sir Brian has put forward in his report. Measures such as restricting the right to elect to retain more cases in the magistrates’ courts and removing juries from some Crown court trials could help to reduce waiting times for victims and make inroads into the caseload.

I am committed to turning the tide on the Crown court backlog by the end of this Parliament. A key test for any new measures is the extent to which they will make a meaningful difference to our caseload. We must create a more sustainable criminal justice system, in which victims and the public can have confidence.

We will carefully consider Sir Brian’s proposals in more detail before setting out the Government’s full response to the report in the autumn.

[HCWS795]