By Monidipa Fouzder >>

(11 November 2024)

Reports that a London Crown court is closing a third of its courtrooms due to cuts are incorrect, the Ministry of Justice has said. However, this will do little to allay fears about the state of the criminal justice system after it emerged that a Crown court in Cornwall will be sitting for fewer days until March, a magistrates’ court in the Midlands is closed until January, and a magistrates’ court in Gloucestershire has a leaky roof.

Idle Courts, an account on social media platform X that tracks Crown court under-usage and has 8,825 followers, posted last week that Woolwich Crown Court is closing four of its 12 courtrooms indefinitely from today due to cuts. ‘Meanwhile this high-security jewel in the court estate adjourns cases from 2020 to the end of 2025 and beyond. I thought Labour were going to be better than this,’ the account said.

However, the Ministry of Justice told the Gazette the situation at Woolwich is temporary and due to three judges being on leave at the same time. Woolwich will sit six courtrooms today and tomorrow, seven for the rest of the week, and return to full capacity next week, the department said.

Meawhile, the BBC today reported that Truro Crown Court will be operating four days a week until March as part of government efforts to reduce spending.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service also revealed in its latest weekly update that Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court will be closed until January while ‘essential heating works’ take place. Cases have been moved to courts within the Black Country and wider region.

Ministers were pressed on the court backlog and state of the courts in the House of Commons last week.

Courts minister Heidi Alexander said the Labour government ‘walked into a criminal justice system on the brink of collapse, with our prisons overflowing and our courts buckling under the weight of demand. While we cannot fix this mess overnight, we will do everything we can to ensure swift justice for victims and to restore faith in the entire system’.

On the Crown court backlog, Alexander said her department is funding 106,500 Crown court sitting days this financial year, 500 more days than the previous government originally agreed. Magistrates’ sentencing powers will be extended to reduce the number of cases that end up at the Crown court.

Liberal Democrat MP Max Wilkinson informed Alexander that as well as having backlogs, Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court is inaccessible for disabled people, has a leaky roof and is ‘generally considered to be in a shocking state of affairs’.

Alexander replied that she would raise specific details of the issues at Cheltenham with HMCTS. ‘We were successful in securing a £177m increase in capital spending for the Ministry of Justice in [the] Budget. That will cover expenditure on prisons and courts,’ she added.

(Courtesy: The Law Society Gazette)