CJS: On the Brink or Already Collapsed?

Thousands of cases that would normally be heard in front of a jury should be decided by judges alone, this is one of the recommendations made by a former senior judge Sir Brian Leveson who was asked by the Lord Chancellor to come up with a series of proposals to reduce the backlog of cases in the criminal courts.

The criminal justice system in England and Wales is not at risk of collapse. It has already collapsed. We’re looking at a Crown Court backlog of 74,650, nearly double 2019 levels.

And yet the real crisis isn’t just the numbers. It’s the lives beneath them. Between October 2020 and September 2024, over 30,000 prosecutions collapsed, including 70 homicides and over 550 sexual offences. Survivors like myself are waiting years, in my case, two, just to get a trial date. I know others who’ve waited over 7 years.

The courts and CPS don’t just move slowly they operate with a level of ineptitude, opacity, and disregard that would be unthinkable in the private sector. They operate like it’s still the 19th century, their systems are antiquated and their communication is abysmal.

People are being left waiting in purgatory. Cases fall apart. Defendants walk free, not because they’re innocent, but because the system failed to function. This isn’t a matter of needing ‘more resources’ or a few more courtrooms. It’s a matter of truth-telling. You cannot fix what you refuse to name: the whole system is broken.

The CJS, which like everything else in this country it has been starved of funding and gutted to the bare bones. Count your lucky blessings if you’ve never had to deal with this system in any capacity.