Justice System under real stress, says report

The public accounts committee report has been heavily critical of the Ministry of Justice, stating that the number of Crown Prosecution Service lawyers has fallen by more than 20% and that the Ministry is too slow to recognize the stress the system is under.

In a damning indictment, the report stated that the MoJ is “too slow to recognise where the system is under stress, and to take action to deal with it.”

It also shows that government spending on the system has fallen by over a quarter since 2010, and states that the ministry has “exhausted the scope to cut costs without pushing the system beyond breaking point”.

It further criticised the Ministry for not responding “quickly enough to the backlog of cases building up as the number of longer, more complex cases, including historical sex abuse, rose at a time when available sitting days had been cut.”

The Law Society stated that the report simply confirmed the “grave concerns” that it had about the system.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told the Law Gazette that “The justice secretary has been clear that our criminal justice system needs urgent reform.

“That is why we have embarked on comprehensive measures to improve our prisons and courts, backed by over £2bn of investment, to build a swifter, more certain justice system.”

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