A cap on court sitting days is to be lifted as the government seeks to ease the cases backlog, David Lammy has announced.
The justice secretary and deputy prime minister said every crown court in England and Wales would be funded to hear more cases in the next financial year.
Criminal barristers welcomed the move, which followed discussions with the lady chief justice, Sue Carr, as significant. Lammy is preparing to make further announcements intended to ease a backlog of at least 80,000 criminal cases.
The agreement guarantees there will be no limit on the number of days on which crown courts can hear cases over the next financial year.
Caps on the number of court sitting days have been imposed intermittently over many years to manage the Ministry of Justice’s budget and staff shortages.
The MoJ announced plans in October to increase crown court sitting days to 111,250 days this year. This is expected to rise to 113,000 as a result of the latest move.
The government and the judiciary have agreed a £2.8bn settlement for courts and tribunals for 2026/27, up from £2.5bn last year.
The funding package includes £287m in capital investment to help repair crumbling court buildings.
Riel Karmy-Jones KC and Andrew Thomas KC, the chair and vice-chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said lifting the cap was “a brave and significant first step”.
“Complainants, witnesses, defendants, and all who works in the criminal justice system, will be hugely relieved as removing the cap on sitting days is the single most important measure which the government can take to bring down the backlog, and reduce the delays,” they said.
The Law Society said the funding package was a step in the right direction, but not enough to clear the backlog or fix the infrastructure.
The chief executive of the pressure group Justice, Fiona Rutherford, said the measures were welcome but warned against using the announcement as cover to cut jury trials.
“These welcome moves contrast sharply with the unnecessary damage cutting juries would bring,” she said. “Restricting the right to jury trial would trample on one of the few parts of the system the public still trusts and cutting them would risk more miscarriages of justice, especially for marginalised communities.”
Lammy is expected to announce further changes on Tuesday that will concentrate on efficiencies highlighted in the second part of Sir Brian Leveson’s review, such as remote hearings.
“I have agreed with the judiciary to fund unlimited sitting days in the crown court next year so they can sit at their maximum and so we can turn the tide on the backlog as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Investment alone will not be enough to deliver timely justice, which is why it has to be combined with our pragmatic reforms and modernisation.”
