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Justice delayed as court has backlog of 3,000 cases

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
Published date26 July 2021
The coronavirus crisis saw courts across the UK close for long periods, while social distancing measures mean fewer sessions have been taking place since the country opened up.

But new figures show the full scale of the problem in Birmingham, with a total of 3,047 cases delayed in the crown court. The city's magistrates courts are also dealing with a 33,076 case backlog, although that is up only two per cent since Covid.

Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Foster said the crown court case backlog in particular was "a matter of huge public concern on a national stage.

"To use an old legal cliche, justice delayed is justice denied.

"Behind the statistics are the real lived experiences of individuals, whether that be the victims of crimes caught up in that backlog, whether it be the witnesses, or the alleged perpetrators.

"A delayed justice system that is not functioning properly is clearly not working effectively and efficiently and is not providing access to justice."

He said it was now up to the Government to organise additional sittings to bring down the backlog, while he was looking to introduce 'problem solving courts' in the region to ease the crisis.

"We need the Government to start stepping up and booking judicial sitting days adequately," he said.

"In terms of what we can do locally... as the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner I get to chair the Local Criminal Justice Board and that's a board on which sits all the various criminal justice stakeholders.

"I've...

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