A British court was given a medical record Blanche to be held as long as necessary to resolve the unprocessed portion of the trial, including the rape case. This means that in some cases the victim has to wait five years for justice.
Earlier this month, the Home Affairs Select Committee Report This shows that the average number of days for rape complaints to be convicted increased from 2,393 days in 2016 to 2,767 days in 2021 (data to September).
Minister of Justice Dominic Raab The Criminal Court has agreed that there is no limit to the number of days or hours that can be seated in the fiscal year 2022-2023.
“Withdrawing the court backlog is an important priority of this government to ensure that victims have prompt access to the judiciary they deserve,” Raab said. “In addition to extending the Nightingale Court, digital hearings, and investing heavily in criminal proceedings, we will remove the two-year seating date limit to increase capacity and reduce the unprocessed proceedings of the Crown Court. “
After the Ministry of Justice made a similar move last year, the court’s capacity increased by 20%, but the backlog increased again.
The Epoch Times asked the Ministry of Justice for comment, but did not respond by the time it was published.
The government wanted the Criminal Court, including the Nightingale Court, to sit on weekends or at night, but there was resistance from the legal profession.
last month Public Accounting Committee The Ministry of Justice said the ambition to reduce unprocessed “up to 8,000 by March 2025” is “a slight ambition.”
Dame Meg Hillier MP, Chair of the Committee, said: We acknowledge the difficulties caused by the pandemic, but the numbers … show that these problems were obvious before the COVID struck. “
Early this month 2,500 barristers in England and Wales acted in protest of concerns about financing legal aid.
The lawyer refused to cover the court appearance or prepare for a colleague whose case went too far. Their actions were expected to exacerbate the unprocessed portion of the trial.
The Criminal Bar Association said the government did not implement the 15 percent increase in litigation aid rates recommended by an independent review.
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