MORE than 100 fewer criminal cases were dealt with at Oxford Crown Court during lockdown compared with the first three months of the year, new figures show.
Legal industry bodies say victims, witnesses and defendants alike are being failed by an underfunded criminal justice system, even prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show 109 cases were concluded at Oxford Crown Court between April and June following a trial or sentencing hearing.
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That was a fall of 50 per cent on the 216 cases dealt with between January and March. Between April and June 2019, 210 cases were concluded.
The figures mean the backlog of cases waiting to be dealt with by the court increased from 349 at the end of March to 361 at the end of June – a rise of three per cent.
In England and Wales, the number of crown court cases concluded almost halved between April and June to 12,338, compared to 23,323 between January and March.
The number of outstanding cases swelled to 42,707 at the end of June, up five per cent compared to March and 25 per cent higher than the same point last year.
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The Law Society of England and Wales, which represents solicitors, said the pandemic had merely exacerbated a significant existing backlog, caused by 'years of underfunding and cuts'.
President Simon Davis said: “Justice is being delayed for victims, witnesses and defendants, who have proceedings hanging over them for months, if not years, with some trials now being listed for 2022."
At magistrates' courts – where all cases start out before the most serious are sent to be heard by judges and juries at crown courts – the backlog soared by almost 100,000 cases during lockdown, reaching a record high 422,000 at the of June.
He said the MoJ had been hit hard by budget cuts and has called the closures of some magistrates' courts 'madness'.
Amanda Pinto QC, chair of the Bar Council which represents barristers, agreed the criminal justice system was 'already in severe difficulty' before the pandemic.
She said: “We’ve seen what lack of funding for law and order achieves – rising crime, low detection rates, long delays to cases with many collapsing before they get anywhere near a court, victims of crime denied justice, and all because government after government has failed to invest in justice.
“The need for long term, significant investment is crucial across the entire justice system if it is to serve its purpose which is to enable people to exercise their rights in a timely and meaningful way.”
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