Lack of funding and more complex cases blamed for court delays
A lack of funding and more complex cases have been blamed for delays in Northern Ireland’s justice system.
Stormont’s Justice Committee heard that the time cases take to go through the court system has spiralled over the last number of years.
Michael Agnew, deputy director of public prosecutions, said a Crown Court case now takes a median number of 750 days to complete, from initial police report to court verdict. That’s around 200 days longer than it was in early 2020.
He stated the number of live cases in Crown Court – currently 1,280, up from 670 in early 2020, is concerning.
An ongoing barristers’ strike over legal aid fees is resulting in a very low disposal rate, driving caseloads and delay up further, he added.
Mr Agnew also referred to living in an “increasingly digital world” which is complicating investigations and prosecutions, in terms of evidence and material considered for disclosure.
Stating that Crown Court cases shot up within 18 months of Covid, he stated they’d been brought back below 1,000 by April 2023 but since then there has been a “general upward trend”.
He stated: “These two trends, the increased levels of cases in the court system and the increased delay, are obviously linked.
“A system that becomes more and more stretched becomes less and less efficient, as a limited number of practitioners spin multiple plates and are unable to focus sufficiently on individual cases to progress them meaningfully towards a conclusion.
“There is no doubt pressures are very significant, and we need to understand and be realistic about the current situation and the challenges that lie ahead.”
Mr Agnew also said the proportional budget strength of the Department of Justice has declined while demand on the justice system as a whole has risen.
Delays, he stated, “will often work in favour of a defendant”.
“Dragging a case out can, in certain types of cases, lead to a victim withdrawing their evidence, or generally just being so keen to move on with their life that they will be content for a case to be resolved by way of a plea to a lesser offence,” he said.