Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to his Answer of 10 February 2022 to Question 119604 on Criminal Proceedings, what the (a) mean and (b) median time was from offence to completion for cases in each (i) region of (A) England and (B) Wales and (ii) Local Justice Area in each of the last five years.

Further to the data provided as part of Question 119604, estimates of median and mean duration (in days) from receipt at Crown Court to completion by region is available at the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/criminal-court-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2021 (opens in a new tab).

The pandemic is the primary cause of the increased caseload in our courts. Prior to the pandemic, the outstanding caseload had reduced significantly, from over 55,000 in late 2014 to c.33,000 in late 2018.

The Government is committed to supporting the recovery of the courts. We have extended 30 Nightingale courtrooms beyond the end of March 2022 and removed the limit on the number of days the Crown Court can sit in the 2021/22 financial year. To secure enough capacity to sit at the required levels in 2022/23 and beyond we are expanding our plans for judicial recruitment.

To provide additional capacity in the Crown Courts we are extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from 6 to 12 months’ imprisonment for a single Triable Either Way offence to allow more cases to be heard in the magistrates’ court and help to drive down the backlog of cases over the coming years.

These measures are already working, and as a result we expect to get through 20% more Crown Court cases this financial year than we did pre-Covid.