Crown court backlog hits 78,000 as victims are told trials will not start until 2029

The number of cases waiting to be heard in crown courts in England and Wales has reached 78,100, the highest ever recorded, with some trials now being listed for the spring of 2029, according to quarterly figures published by the Ministry of Justice.

The backlog has grown for five quarters in a row despite the department lifting the cap on sitting days to 110,000 this year, the most since records began. Officials attribute the rise to a surge in cases arriving from the police, where charge rates have improved after years of decline, and to trials lasting longer than they did before the pandemic. The average time from charge to verdict in a contested case is now 68 weeks.

The delays are felt most acutely in rape and serious sexual assault cases, where more than 3,400 complainants have been waiting for over two years. The victims’ commissioner said this week that the attrition rate in such cases, the proportion of complainants who withdraw before trial, had risen to 71%.

“I was told in March that my trial would be in the autumn of 2028,” said one woman from Leicester, who reported an assault in 2024 and asked not to be named. “Then I had a letter saying it had moved to February 2029. My barrister says it may move again. I am supposed to carry on with my life for three years with this sitting in a diary. I do not know many people who could.”

The government has accepted in principle the recommendations of an independent review of the courts published last year, which proposed that cases carrying a maximum sentence of two years or less should be heard by a judge sitting alone, and that defendants should be able to choose a judge-only trial in other cases. Legislation is expected in the new year, but the Criminal Bar Association has warned that it would not reduce the backlog for at least three years and has threatened to ballot its members over fees.

“We have fewer criminal barristers than we had in 2019 and the ones we have are working themselves into the ground,” said Rupert Hallam KC, the association’s chair. “You can open every courtroom in the country and it changes nothing if there is nobody to prosecute or defend. The last fee rise was in 2022.”

Court buildings are also a constraint. HM Courts and Tribunals Service said 42 crown courtrooms were out of use in September for repairs, with several closed because of leaking roofs and failed heating. Snaresbrook crown court in east London, the busiest in the country, lost 31 sitting days in the last quarter to building faults.

The lord chancellor said the figures were “unacceptable” and that the department would announce further measures, including the use of retired judges and extended sitting hours at eight court centres, within weeks. Opposition parties said the government had been promising a plan for 18 months.