Monday Message 21.07.25
The CBA Snap Survey:
The survey closes at 10:00 on the 23rd July 2025. It will require no more than ten minutes of your time. This is a moment in legal history when fundamental differences could be made to the criminal justice system.
We have meetings arranged with the Lord Chancellor, the Minister of State, Sarah Sackman and the MOJ.
We wish to express your collective views to them. If you have not already done so, please complete the survey.
Once we have the survey results we will provide them to you in a detailed message.
Remuneration:
We were asked to await the publication of the Leveson Review before remuneration could be considered by the Government. We note that, if the reforms are introduced, they will require continuing, tireless work by the criminal Bar. We have asked for the things that matter to you according to our national survey, a pay-review body, broad parity of fees when prosecuting or defending, an increase to reflect the absence of any annual pay increase for some time and the ring fencing of the funds which were guaranteed in the 2022 solution to the Bar’s action. We await a response.
Immediate change:
Despite chronic delays in the Crown Courts across England and Wales, last Friday 114 court rooms were closed. That amounts to 22% of the entire Crown Court estate. On Monday 21st July 2025, as has become the norm, four of twenty of the court rooms at Snaresbrook are closed. At the Old Bailey, five of the eighteen courts are not sitting. At Isleworth, reductions in their allowance of sitting days has meant that some trials are being listed in 2029.
In addition, the Resident Judge’s efforts to prioritise trials which involve sexual violence against women and girls has been seriously curtailed by this reduction, so that only two such cases can be listed per week rather than three. If this waste of resources continues then in forty weeks the Crown Court will have lost 20,000 sitting days. That is precisely the extra amount that Sir Brian Leveson has recommended that the Government provides in order “to maximise the effectiveness of proposed reforms.” We are told it would cost £90 million to provide an additional 20,000 sitting days.
Whilst that seems to be a vast amount of money, it is important to consider it in the context of Government spending as a whole. For example, in December 2024, the Government added £500 million to the pothole repair budget, making a total of £1.6 billion. It is acknowledged that potholes are a safety issue for road users. Trials not being heard, sentences not being completed, also pose a real safety issue for society as a whole. We urge the Government to work with us, using the efficiency recommendations that we have provided to fix the broken system rather than focussing on reinventing it. That way we can reduce the trauma for at least some of those whose lives are on hold whilst they wait for years for their trial.
Idle Courts:
Idle Courts, using the tag @CourtsIdle on its social media accounts has assisted us all by providing daily figures for closures. It has now been doing so for over 12 months. Nothing appears to have improved. Thank you for keeping us all so informed.
The Podcast Series:
The CBA has produced a large number of podcasts on legal matters. The programme has been varied and well-received by practitioners and the general public. The most recent one is on the Leveson Review and features Francis FitzGibbon KC, Kate Bex KC and Simon Spence KC who discuss the recommendations.
All of the podcasts are on the website. The podcasts are produced by Adam Batstone.
You can listen to the most recent podcast (The Leveson Review) here.
Youth Justice Charter launched:
The Youth Justice Charter has now launched.
The site includes an animation, PDF versions in English & Welsh, five ‘mini’ versions – each version focuses on a single group of standards, five easy-read versions – each version focuses on a single group of standards and posters to promote the charter.
As we know, a child’s interaction with the youth justice system is at a time when they are incredibly vulnerable and their engagement and trust in a fair process can make all the difference to what they do next. If a child knows what to expect, and who is responsible for what, they are more likely to trust and engage with the process.
That’s why the Ministry of Justice, working with a wide range of stakeholders (including the Solicitors Regulation Authority, Crown Prosecution Service, The Law Society, Youth Justice Board, Youth Custody Service, National Police Chiefs’ Council and HMCTS) has developed the Youth Justice Charter. Young people from two national charities also helped to design the Charter website.
The Charter sets out the standards that a child can expect from the people and organisations they might meet in the youth justice system. It doesn’t add to or extend existing rights and standards. It simply sets these out together, in one place, in clear language.
It’s organised into five parts, each representing a stage in the youth justice ‘journey’ that a child might be involved with – the police, the courts, youth justice services, custody and resettlement. Each stage of the Charter also has a section that explains what to do and who to contact if the standards have not been met.
Yours,
Mary Prior KC
Chair, The Criminal Bar Association