It was always clear that without a plan to sustain the publicly funded criminal Bar. @TheCriminalBarJustice News247

It was always clear that without a plan to sustain the publicly funded criminal Bar there would come a time when there would be insufficient numbers of barristers to prosecute and defend and fewer young barristers entering the profession to maintain it. Chair Tana Adkin KC, message:

The implications of this are obvious. With the growing backlog the lack of capacity at the criminal Bar is now visible in the 1436 trials adjourned last year due to the absence of a barrister.

In June 2021 on the publication of Government’s End to End Rape Review, Ministers apologised unreservedly for failing victims of sexual offences and committed to develop a new national operating model for the investigation and prosecution of rape.

Operation Soteria Bluestone, funded by the Home Office came into being. On the 5th December 2022, two months after the criminal Bar agreed to go back to work, it was reported victims were seeing “significant improvements in the criminal justice system’s response to rape” (the number of cases reaching the Crown Court was up 91%).

By July 2023 the Government had exceeded its target of more than doubling the number of adult rape cases reaching the Crown Court with the number up by over 160%. All commendable. But the warnings of a lack of barristers conducting publicly funded work, particularly in RASSO was unheeded.

The number of RASSO cases being concluded in the courts has risen thanks to the dedication of the RASSO advocates that remain, but capacity has been stretched beyond its limit. In 2023 2566 adult rape cases were received into the Crown Court but only 1805 cases were concluded, 500 less than in 2016.

It is now taking an average of 2 years for a rape case [defendant on bail] to be dealt with in the Crown Court. [Court dates regularly being fixed for Spring 2026 for charges made last year or early this year]. That means the rape complainant whose case arrived at court in December 2022 won’t see its conclusion until December 2024.

The victim who reported “significant improvements” back then would still be waiting. The complainants of July 2023 can expect their cases to be heard not this Summer but next Summer 2025. We have asked Government to urgently invest in RASSO cases to improve this situation so that the investment and effort of Operation Soteria Bluestone is not wasted.

We continue to work with Government to make sure the investment in the criminal Bar, promised in the “deal” in October 2022, materialises and will work with the MoJ and the CPS in their preparations for the next Spending Review to make sure that the budget for the Criminal Justice system is increased. However, the urgency in addressing rape cases coming to the courts swelling the backlog, cannot wait.