Record Crown Court backlog
Yesterday’s (27 March 2025) Criminal Court Statistics show that the backlogs in both Crown and Magistrates’ Courts continue to grow. There were 74,651 open cases at the Crown Court on 31 December 2024, almost double the figure (40,898) from five years earlier. Both tiers of Courts are dealing with more cases but cannot keep pace with growing demand.
Crown Courts
The increased throughput from the magistrates’ courts as part of the initial recovery from the pandemic response saw the volume of receipts (new cases) at the Crown Court exceed pre-COVID levels in late 2020. Following a slight decline, receipts have tended to increase since 2023, surpassing levels seen immediately pre-COVID and those seen in 2016.
There were 29,485 cases received into the Crown Court in the last quarter of 2024. This is the highest Q4 (October – December) value seen across the series since 2016 and represents an 8% increase on the previous year.
In 2024, there were 121,579 cases received into the Crown Court, this is the highest annual total reported across the series since 2016 and is 13% higher than volumes seen in 2023 (107,433).
The latest increase in demand at the Crown Court was seen more in “for trial” (11%) than “sentence” (6%) or appeal cases (-16%).
There were increases in receipts for all offence groups (excluding possession of weapons) compared to the previous year, with violence against the person (9%), sexual offences (15%) and drug offences (9%) contributing most to the overall increase.
Violence against the person offences continue to be the largest contributing offence group with 8,378 receipts in the period – this represents an increase of 42% compared to Q4 2019 and now accounts for 28% of all cases received in the quarter.
There were 28,143 cased disposed at the Crown Court in Q4 2024, this is the highest Q4 (October – December) value seen across the series. The latest disposal volumes are up 7% on levels seen in the previous year (26,257) and well above those seen in Q4 2019 (23,132).
In 2024, there were 113,885 cases disposed of at the Crown Court, this is the highest annual total reported since 2016 (120,143) and is 12% higher than volumes seen in 2023 (102,022).
The largest proportionate increase was seen for “sentence” cases which increased by 13% on the previous year, whereas “for trial” cases increased by 5%.
Increases in disposal volumes are seen for all offence groups (excluding drug offences) compared to the previous year. Like the trends in case receipts there has been a notable and consistent increase in violence against the person cases.
The open caseload reflects the workload in the courts at any time. It will never be zero, as it reflects the volume of cases that are active in the courts at a particular point, including those cases that have been recently received, those close to being disposed, those which are complex and take time to complete and those that may be delayed. The open caseload fell between 2016 and 2019, and at the end of 2019 it stood at 38,049.
At the end of December 2024 there were 74,651 open cases at the Crown Court, this is a series high and continues increases seen since Q1 2023.
The open caseload increased by 2% on the previous quarter (73,172 cases) and 11% on the previous year (67,317 cases).
The largest increases in the open caseload compared to the previous year were seen for violence against the person (21%) and sexual offences (18%).
The increases in open caseload volumes can be seen for all regions, with the South East reporting the largest open caseload at the end of December 2024 (16,114 cases).
Ineffective trials
One of the main reasons for the increasing log is the ineffectiveness of the Crown Court system.
There were 6,933 trials listed to start in Q4 2024 – a decrease of 6% on the same quarter in the previous year. The proportion of trials which commence as planned (effective) remained stable at 43%, this has been fairly consistent for the last two years but it remains below rates seen pre-COVID which average around 50%.
Similarly, the percentage of trials that are not required (cracked) and which are rescheduled (ineffective) remained in line with the previous quarter (31% and 25% respectively). There has been a substantial deterioration in the ineffective trial rate on levels seen prior to 2020 (ranging around 13-19% or about half the current rate) and rates have stabilised at these higher levels.
Magistrates’ Courts
Although the backlog has also risen in Magistrates’ Courts, the problem is not so pressing. Receipts into the magistrates’ courts fell by 2% on the previous year, while disposals increased by 3%. Despite this, disposals remained below receipts and as a result the open caseload increased by slightly on the previous quarter (<1%) and 14% on the previous year.
Receipts and disposals have both tended to rise from series lows in Q2 2020 when the initial measures were put in place to manage the immediate risks of the COVID-19 pandemic in courts. The latest levels remain slightly below those seen in 2019 prior to the pandemic.
While receipts into the magistrates’ court in the latest year are higher than a year ago, receipts in the latest quarter decreased by 2% compared to same period in the previous year and were largely unchanged on the previous quarter. Despite an overall decrease on the previous year there were notable increases in summary non-motoring (12%) and ‘for trial’ cases (12%).
Disposals at the magistrates’ court in the latest quarter increased by 3% on the previous year and 8% on the previous quarter – this is due to a sharp increase in summary non-motoring disposals, up 27% on the previous quarter and accounting for 38% of all disposals (a series peak).
At the end of December 2024 there were 309,838 open cases at the magistrates’ courts. This represents a slight increase on the previous quarter (308,426) and a 14% increase on the previous year (271,962). There was a 26% increase in the volume of open “for trial” cases, up from 58,174 to 73,567 at the end of December 2024.
Conclusion
These figures make it clear that any Government is unlikely to get on top of these backlogs (which have huge and often traumatic impact particularly on victims of serious crimes and on those defendants who are innocent) in the short-medium term without substantial policy changes.
We must wait for Sir Brian Leveson’s Review of the Criminal Courts to see whether the Government has the appetite for fundamental changes to our long-standing court system.
