Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the present backlog of cases awaiting trial in (1) the Crown Court, and (2) the Magistrates' Court.

The table below provides the information requested on the current number of outstanding cases awaiting trial in (1) the Crown Court, and (2) the Magistrates’ Courts.

These data are taken from the national statistics on the level of outstanding work in the criminal courts for the first quarter of 2020 which were published on 26 June 2020 and are available at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/criminal-court-statistics. The data for the second quarter will be published in September 2020.

Notes:

¹The magistrates’ court figure represents all those cases outstanding that are categorised as for trial (Indictable-only and Triable-either-way) and not just those awaiting a trial hearing. For example, it will include cases where defendants plead guilty and not guilty, and those where a warrant has been issued

² Though the figures for both Magistrates’ and Crown Court includes for trial cases (Triable-either-way and Indictable Only) which are outstanding for trial we are unable to say at what stage of the court process these are, for example, this may include cases where a trial has started but has not concluded.