Backlogs in the courts now exceed 70,000, while more than a quarter (27%) of all trials are adjourned, and only 43% go ahead on time. The lack of judicial sitting days and barristers is primarily to blame.
These delays are having a huge impact on economic crime cases, which in the case of fraud amounts to 40% of all criminal activity. Delays incentivise suspects to drag things out longer, creating a vicious cycle of even further delays.
The length and complexity of economic crime trials, including the huge drain of disclosure exercises, coupled with the fact that suspects in these cases are almost always bailed rather than put on remand, means these cases are at the back of the queue. It is now taking two to three years for prosecutors to get a slot in the courts for these kinds of cases.
This is leading to real frustration from victims of economic crime and jeopardising the viability of trials, with witnesses withdrawing. It is also increasing the costs of economic crime trials to prosecuting bodies, and ultimately undermining the deterrent value of economic crime laws.
Big new thinking is needed to tackle this. Better use can be made of existing measures, to ensure more intelligence-led investigations, tighter prosecution cases and better use of plea deal guidelines. But new measures are also needed, from more credit for early cooperation, to better funding for the defence and for the digital infrastructure in the courts and prosecution services.
Specialist economic crime courts should also be considered. Ultimately the government should think about setting up a Royal Commission to look at whether radical changes, including in relation to the use of juries in long complex trials, could result in justice across the board being much more effectively delivered.
- Read Andrew’s report here
Back of the courtroom queue
How to tackle serious delays in economic crime cases in the courts of England and Wales
