England’s top judge hits out at government’s refusal to boost court funding

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Ministers’ refusal to fund significantly more criminal court sitting days has exacerbated pressure on the justice system, England’s most senior judge warned on Tuesday.

Dame Sue Carr, lady chief justice, said a budget-driven decision to prevent the crown courts, which hear the most serious cases, from operating at full capacity has had a “drastic effect” in worsening backlogs.

“It’s a very distressing situation,” Carr told MPs on the House of Commons justice committee, pointing to the effect on people caught up in the criminal justice system.

Carr said the crown courts had capacity for 113,000 sitting days — the combined total for the number of days judges hear cases.

But despite a request she made this year for funds to tackle lengthy case delays, Carr said the incoming Labour government was willing to fund 106,500 — an increase of just 500 on the previous Conservative government’s plans

While she suspected the decision was taken for “budgetary” reasons, Carr warned that the measures would ultimately fail to save the state money.

“You are deferring the cost, and indeed you are increasing it . . . because inflation will mean everything costs more, because barristers and the CPS [prosecutors] are going to have to redo the work” to prepare for trial, she said. “That is not even to touch on the acute social cost.”

Carr’s comments are the latest sign of concern at the highest levels of the legal profession about the state of England’s courts system — even as the government has pledged to ease the backlogs blighting criminal cases.

Carr, in post since October last year, said the ministry of justice was “one of the most underfunded departments across government” and that “we have courtrooms and some entire courts being stopped running for significant periods”.

“A commitment to the rule of law is not just about respecting constitutional boundaries. That should be taken as read, I suggest. The foundation of the rule of law is a properly funded and properly functioning justice system,” she added.

The MoJ said that while it was “bound by a challenging financial inheritance, this government is committed to bearing down on the crown court backlog”.

“On top of increasing sitting days, we are extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from six to 12 months, freeing up to 2,000 days in the crown courts to handle the most serious cases, and recruiting more judges.”