
Oli
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Oli
@OFH321
Sharing the global news. RTs & Likes are not endorsements. Views are mine and mainly for entertainment. PLEASE help animals to live, be safe & loved ❤️🙏











“The backlog at courts in Wales and the northwest and southeast of England fell considerably since the sitting days were added, according to the lawyers’ research. After the initial move in October, ministers announced in February that the sitting days cap would be completely lifted for the next year. The criminal law barristers said the move was already having an effect. They cited Maidstone crown court, the largest in the southeast outside the capital, where the case backlog had fallen by more than 5 per cent in the past six months. The researchers said that across England and Wales over the past quarter, new case receipts had fallen by 3 per cent compared with the same period the previous year. The association noted that in London, the biggest crown court region in the country, where the case backlog had been rising sharply, the number of fresh cases had dipped by 5 per cent in the past three months of 2025 — the period after the initial cash injection for additional court sitting days. “The 3 per cent fall in the last quarter of 2025 suggests that the fall is gathering pace and indicating that the trajectory is for yet further falls in the backlog so far this year, with more declines to come as the lid on sitting days is lifted,” the researchers said. thetimes.com/uk/law/article…

Today’s @thetimes “Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, said she did “not understand why this core data, which shows that the crown court case backlog in large parts of the country is coming down, was not shared with us, or the parliamentary select committee scrutinising the Courts and Tribunals Bill last week”. She added: “The debate about jury trials is of such generational importance, not only to the criminal justice system, but society as a whole. Yet for no explicable reason, this data, which may undermine government’s own projections, and was available on the date it was due for publication, appears to have been sat on for many weeks if not many months.” Karmy-Jones said that “at this crucial stage in negotiations relating to the bill, it is essential that everyone has absolute trust that they are being dealt a fair hand”, adding: “We rely on our government and our MPs to apply a transparent democratic process.” The association criticised ministers in their promotion of the bill for allegedly relying on an impact assessment that provided “no proper evidential foundation” and which included “assumptions — rather than data”.











