“Questions have been asked why rioters have been prosecuted and sentenced in just a few days when other cases can take years to come to trial.” @thetimes reports today #riots.
As our chair Tana Adkin KC warned in February, 6 months ago, “I think when you are in strained times and you are dealing with a system that is, as I say, on its knees, that’s when it is going to show up.” when @SkyNews asked in February “is prioritising protest cases the right way to go when the problem in court backlogs is so much wider?”
This was the prescient reply: “Prominent KC and chair of the Criminal Bar Association, Tana Adkin, told Sky News: “The principle that you deal with people as quickly as possible and get them out on bail [and] you set conditions so they don’t go back onto the M25 and glue themselves to the road, the principle is fine.
“But why should they have that while everyone else in the criminal justice system doesn’t?” She also questioned the overall impact of protest cases on the courts, adding: “If you are putting pressure on a system that is already on its knees, it is obviously going to show up more clearly. “Our system should be perfectly able to deal with protesters as we have in the past. We have always had protests and the courts have always managed it. “I think when you are in strained times and you are dealing with a system that is, as I say, on its knees, that’s when it is going to show up.”
Back to Today 8 August “Speaking to@TimesRadio, Dame Diana Johnson, a @ukhomeoffice , acknowledged: “The criminal justice system needs to be swifter in its dealings with perpetrators we are very focused on making sure the long waits are completely unacceptable, particularly around rape trials,” she said.
“It’s an inheritance we have in this country from 14 years of Conservative government. We are very clear we need to get the criminal justice system working properly.”” Now today, we look forward to the colour of this government’s money and reinvest, immediately, substantially and sustainably in the criminal barristers all governments of any colour expect to help them when the State and the public relies on us to prosecute and defend professionally to deliver “swift justice” for all people of any background in their hours of need, but without ever losing sight of fair trials or there is no justice at all for complainants, victims of crime and defendants accused of crime.
Talk of “swift justice” will remain just that – talk – without swift reinvestment around a basic principle lacking for over a decade that everyone charged with a crime must be tried within six months, in line with statutory custody time limits on holding anyone in prison without trial. That six months limit should apply equally to those in custody and on bail awaiting trial. Right now we have tens of thousands of people waiting for years for trials.
We fail them and we fail the public.
The time for swift reinvestment into those relied on to deliver justice daily in our courts has never been clearer. If
@ukhomeoffice wants to meet its stated aim for “swift justice” it has to ensure
@hmtreasury loosens the purse strings so via
@attorneygeneral the
@CPSUK can pay proper fees to ensure it has sufficient independent prosecutors from the criminal bar – the professionally trained and experienced criminal advocates who choose public service – that the
@MoJGovUK can meet its needs to ensure equally experienced and able independent counsel are available on each and every day every trial comes to trial so justice can be done. When 1436 trials in 2023 were cancelled on the day they were due to start as there was no counsel to prosecute or defend – after often years of delay – and that was a 20 fold increase on similar events in 2019, then it is clear the criminal justice system has failed to invest in the justice professionals it needs to function, let alone function “swiftly”. Enough talk.
Invest. Now.
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