Monday Message 29.09.25
CBA Engagement with Government
Last week we met with Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor, and Secretary of State for Justice David Lammy MP. We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to meet at such an early stage following his appointment. It was a constructive meeting, focused on the state of the courts, our working lives and wellbeing, and the essential efficiency measures that will assist in bringing down the backlog. It is clear that Mr. Lammy has a genuine and longstanding interest in the work of the criminal justice system. We discussed with him the results of the ‘snap survey’ of CBA membership on Sir Brian Leveson’s proposals, our concerns about the proposed Crown Court Bench Division and the retention of juries in fraud trials. Mr. Lammy also confirmed that the undertaking from the MoJ to consider multi-year funding settlements for the criminal bar is still on the table.
Substantial work remains to be done. We will continue our constructive engagement with Mr. Lammy, the MoJ, and the government to make things better for all who appear and work in the criminal courts.
This morning we took part in a round table with Sir Brian Leveson, ahead of the second part of his government commissioned Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, focusing on efficiencies.
Next month, we will have a further one-on-one meeting with Sir Brian to develop our submissions on the practical solutions that must be put in place before radical reform is imposed.
We will therefore be reporting back on any developments in respect of Part 2 of the Leveson Review in early November.
Please note – hereon in, the Monday Message will be published every second week. There will be a short News Bulletin, on the alternate weeks, and any “Breaking News” that needs to be addressed at other times will be dealt with as immediately as possible.
MoJ Quarterly Figures
The latest quarterly figures from the MoJ have now been published, a quarter in arrears, to the end of June 2025. Key points are as follows:
The backlog, as of 30th June 2025, stood at 78,329. If it hasn’t already hit 80,000, it certainly will soon.
- This figure includes 4,086 rape cases which we who practice in the criminal courts know are often those that take the longest to come to trial.
- At the end of June 2024, just days before this government took power, the backlog stood at 70,893. The increase is therefore nearly 10% in just 12 months, a level of growth not seen since the Covid period of 2020/21.
- In just three months from April to June 2025, it rose by 1,518.
- In December 2018 the backlog stood at 33,009. It has risen by 137% in six and a half years.
The Reason for the Increase – Artificial Budgetary Caps
The pace and scale of the increase over the past 12 months cannot be blamed solely on rising volumes of new cases coming into the system, as that has been a trend since 2022, after policy decisions were taken by the then government to increase the charging and prosecution of violent and sexual offences, a policy that was reaffirmed by this Government within days of taking power in July 2024. However, no targets were set as to how these additional cases were to be managed, how they were to be dealt with in court and how the Crown Courts could at the same time begin bring the existing backlog down.
Looking at the data, we are in fact completing more cases than in previous years. In the year to 30.06.2025, 114,325 cases were completed compared to 108,995 in 2023/24 and 92,849 in 2022/23. Statistically, the reason why the backlog has gone up is because these improvements have been outstripped by the increase in the number of new cases received in the system (in the year to 30.06.2025 it is 121,863, in 2023/24 it was 116,035 and in 2022/23 it was 98,779).
The issue is that the number of court rooms available to hear cases that go to trial has reduced, as many have had to be shut to satisfy Government targets for court spending. According to Sir Brian Leveson’s review, at full capacity the Crown Court has 130,000 sitting days available. Judicial and staff capacity sits at 113,000 sitting days. However, towards the end of 2024 the government capped sitting days at 106,000. At approximately the same time, there was a cut to the budget available for Recorders to sit.
The CBA warned that the decision to put a cap on the court sitting days budget alongside a cut to the budget for Recorders would have an immediate detrimental impact on the case backlog and needed to be reversed. Although the number of sitting days subsequently increased, first to 108,500, and again this year to 110,000, the courts still do not sit at full capacity. As a result, resident judges have been forced to cancel trials.
The cuts were made to fall disproportionately on three circuits – London, the West and North West – the logic presumably being that those areas had managed to by and large reduce and then stabilize their backlogs between the end of 2022 and early 2024. However, this has backfired, with the MOJ itself highlighted only last Thursday that “London reported the largest open case load at 18,188 – this represents an increase of 4% on the previous quarter (17,501) [twice the national rate of increase] and 25% on the previous year (14,450).”
- A record 20,815 trials were vacated across England and Wales over the 12 months to June 2025.
- Over half of those vacated trials, 11,174, were during the first six months of 2025. They include 4,570 trials of violence against the person cases and 1,533 sexual offences cases, of which 466 are adult rape trials.
- By comparison in the first six months of 2021, when Covid was at its peak, and when the courts had Nightingale courts to add to their capacity, a total of 9,492 trials were vacated.
- London accounted for 3,143 vacated trials over the 12 months to June 2025, of which well over half, 1,741, were recorded during the first six months of 2025.
- London today accounts for nearly one in four of all backlogged cases.
The Backlog of Sexual Offences, including Rape
The adult rape case backlog has now exceeded 4,000 for the first time, reaching 4,086 by 30 June 2025, a rise of 264 cases in three months (3,822 at end March 2025), or a 7% rise, more than three times the rate of increase of the overall criminal case backlog.
- It rose 31% over the 12 months to June 2025, adding 972 more cases from the 3,114 at end June 2024, while the overall case backlog rose 10% over the same period.
- It has risen more than seven-fold in six years, adding 3,513 cases or a rise of 613% from its series low of 573 in June 2019.
The rape case backlog forms part of an overall sexual offences case backlog which at end June was 3,328, a rise of 6.2% or 772 more cases in three months (12,553 at end March 2025).
- The sexual offences backlog has added 2,266 more in 12 months, a rise of 20.5% from 11,062 at end June 2024; and
- Has risen more than four-fold in six and a half years, adding 10,289 more cases or a rise of 339% from a series low of 3,039 at the end 2018.
The Human Cost
The danger of focusing on numbers and percentages is that the impact on victims, complainants, defendants, and all witnesses is forgotten. Having to explain to any or all the above that their trial has gone back, often for years, is one of the worst parts of our job. Telling a child that their case will not be heard until they have become an adult, that it will be hanging over them like a perpetual black cloud through their GCSE’s, their A-levels, and into their first university year, and seeing them crushed at the prospect of not being able to put it behind them and move on is heartbreaking.
Currently we have the worst of all worlds – a record backlog and record delays with trials currently being listed for up to four years away.
And it is not only sexual offences. Just last Thursday a robbery case was listed for trial at Isleworth Crown Court for 8 October 2029. The crime was alleged to have taken place in March, and charges were brought in August. The defendant and the witnesses will have to wait over four more years for that trial to start. We have also heard that at Inner London Crown Court a December 2029 trial date had been given for an alleged offence committed in April 2024. If that trial does go ahead, it will be five years eight months since the alleged offence.
Within weeks we expect to hear that 2030 trial dates have begun to be listed. This is unacceptable, and unsustainable.
Efficiency
The right approach now is to begin by fixing the infrastructure of the courts, focusing on the many efficiency measures that could improve productivity, and open back up court rooms that have been shut for a year or more to claw back wasted time.
The CBA made 19 specific proposals in its paper date 29th January 2025, for making Crown Court run more efficiently so as to reduce the backlog. That report can be found here.
At a minimum, we must: –
- Maximize court capacity by increasing the number of sitting days to the full extent available.
- Deal with and impose penalties upon the unacceptable delays caused by third parties such as the prison escort services who fail to bring defendants to court on time.
- Resolve issues with inadequate court and police technology.
- Encourage firm but realistic directions as to timeliness of case preparation.
- Review the mechanisms for recruitment of Recorders, and the sitting days made available to them.
- Rebuild the fabric of our crumbling court rooms.
- Between June 2024 and June 2025, 75 trials were cancelled on the first day they were due to start due to “equipment or accommodation failures”.
- 28 of those were London trials, cancelled due to courtroom or kit “failures”.
- 19 were sexual offence trials.
We owe it all those waiting for justice, to all the criminal barristers who have kept this system from collapse and to all who work in the court system, to ensure a roof over their heads that does not leak, electricity heating and air conditioning that does not fail, a toilet and lift that works, a place to buy food and water, a workspace and consultation room that is clean.
It must not be forgotten that in our recent Snap Survey 48% of criminal barristers said they regret their career choice. One in 3 is actively seeking to leave the Bar. One in 3 is considering moving their practice into another discipline other than crime. 12% are considering both. This means that less than half of the criminal bar is committed to continuing with publicly funded work, specifically because of the conditions we have to work in, which have resulted in three-quarters of us suffering from chronic stress.
And if the criminal bar is not believed, the results of a survey conducted by the Law Society of their solicitor membership demonstrate that the issues are wide reaching and cause delays. Reported in The Law Society Gazette article, “Rotting seagulls and ‘maggots raining down’: solicitors lay bare the condition of the courts estate”, nearly two thirds of respondents said they had experienced delays in hearing because of the state of court buildings. The report found ‘little improvement’ in the courts infrastructure since the previous survey in 2022, and 63% of respondents had experienced adjournments or transfers in venue due to the condition of the court. A third of solicitors whose cases had been held remotely as a result considered this inappropriate to the type of case. Read the full article here.
We hope that the latest MOJ figures will help us all to work collaboratively towards identifying the efficiencies that can be made, without creating another cellophane layer of court on top of a system that is already suffocating and in need of urgent financial oxygen. We shall explore these practical solutions this week with Sir Brian.
No one deserves to wait until 2030 for a trial. Change must start now.
OTHER NEWS
Amrisha Parathalingam
It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Amrisha Parathalingam, of St Philips Chambers, Birmingham who passed away peacefully in Sri Lanka on 23rd September 2025. She had only recently celebrated her 43rd birthday.
Amrisha was a dedicated and accomplished advocate, respected by colleagues and admired by all who knew her. Beyond her many achievements in court, Amrisha will be remembered most for her infectious laughter, dry wit and joie de vivre. She had a flair for style that was uniquely her own – an elegance and vibrancy that reflected the way she lived her life, full of colour and grace. Amrisha had a way of bringing light and warmth into every room, uplifting those around her with her kindness, humour and a generosity of spirit. She navigated the challenges of her illness with remarkable strength and dignity.
She will be deeply missed by her family, friends, and colleagues, whose lives were enriched by her presence. We offer them our sincere condolences.
South Eastern Circuit Annual Dinner
The SEC Dinner will take place at the Great Hall Lincoln’s Inn this coming Friday, 3rd October 2025. The guest speaker is Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, Lady Chief Justice of England and Wales. For tickets, contact [email protected].
Charity Cycle Ride
Veterans of the Bar Bruce Houlder KC, past Chair of the CBA, together with Victor Temple KC, and HH Peter Cowell, who have an average age of 80, have just completed a 9-day cycling trip along the River Loire to raise money to expand services offered by Fighting Knife Crime London.
The charity website can be found here.
Bruce founded the charity, whose purpose is to address the causes and effects of knife crime and all forms of violence, something very much needed in this present day. If you wish to donate to their important work, please visit their Just Giving page here.
Yours,
Riel Karmy-Jones KC
Chair
The Criminal Bar Association