Victims’ charity calls for ‘urgent’ investment to cut court backlog as barristers’ strike continues into third week
A leading victims’ support charity has called on the government to take “urgent action” to cut the court backlog by upping investment in the criminal justice system – as criminal barristers prepared for their third week of strikes.
Diana Fawcett, chief executive of Victim Support chief said “court delays and cancelled hearings” are having a “devastating impact on victims,” as she warned that English and Welsh victims of crime are now “facing excruciatingly long waits for trials”.
In highlighting the worsening court backlog, the charity exec continued in calling on the government to take urgent action by investing in efforts to tackle the criminal justice system’s “far reaching problems” in order to “stop victims from losing faith in the criminal justice system altogether.”
“We hear every day from people facing excruciatingly long waits for trial and many of the victims we’re supporting have been affected by the strikes,” Fawcett said. “However, when it comes to backlogs in our courts, these strikes are only part of the picture and long court delays have been an issue for nearly a decade.”
The comments come after Justice minister James Cartlidge last week blamed striking barristers, and their “wholly disproportionate” actions, for scuppering the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) efforts to cut the court backlogs, in a letter announcing his resignation from his ministerial position.
In response, Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said any further delays “caused by political instability” in the UK government will inevitably lead to the “permanent departure” of even more criminal defence lawyers “at a time when they are needed more than ever to help tackle the backlogs and ensure access to justice for victims and defendants.”
The Law Society president added that the current moment is a “make-or-break” situation as she called on the government to increase legal aid fees “before it’s too late.”
The calls came as barristers on Monday held picket lines outside of courts in London, Plymouth, Preston, and Birmingham, in preparation for their third week of court walkouts, as part of ongoing strikes over legal aid fees.
The walkouts are set to run from Monday to Thursday this week, and will cover all five working days next week, before they revert to an alternating week on, week off basis. Barristers are calling on the government to increase legal aid fees by 25 per cent, after the government offered a 15 per cent increase.