In this third episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the podcast series from the Criminal Bar Association of England and Wales, Mary Prior KC, Chair of the CBA together with James Gray, CBA Treasurer, draw on their and other justice professionals’ first hand experience to illustrate the personal toll on criminal barristers as they struggle to maintain the excellence expected in every case prosecuted and defended in the face of ongoing funding constraints and colleagues leaving criminal practice in droves.

We hear more from Paul, who as we learned in Episode 2, is a man who spent four years on bail awaiting trial, and how he relied on his defence counsel to hold both his case and his emotional stability together during the years when his life was put on hold.

The traumatic experiences of a rape complainant coming to court for a long delayed trial, only to cross paths with her assailant in the court car park before both were due to give evidence is recounted by Paula. We bear witness to her raw reality experienced from a chaotic justice system reeling from years of court estate cuts, despite the best efforts of judges and criminal barristers to keep witnesses calm so they can give evidence safely and fairly.

The impossibility of many barristers to remain practising in criminal law is explained in detail by former Resident Judge at Leeds Crown Court, Peter Collier KC. He makes the link between Government decisions pre-pandemic to cut Crown Court funding which forced available court rooms to close, thus causing the throughput of trials to slow and cases to pile up.

The current backlog of criminal cases stands at over 70,000, more than double the backlog of just 33,000 at the start of 2019. The precise extent of the backlog as of the date of this publication is still unknown as Government has yet to publish its latest accurate data for over six months. Those of us who prosecute and defend these cases at the Criminal Bar, however, are receiving listings for trials into late 2026 and early 2027, which if they do commence on time, will be by then two years or more since offences were charged and taking total wait for justice since the reporting of any alleged offences to six, seven or more years.

As our Chair Mary Prior KC concludes “Anyone can be accused of a crime and anyone can be the victim of a crime. If you find yourself in that position or you find one of your loved ones is in that position, you want a system that works, that gets your case dealt with within a reasonable time, in a reasonably fitted court building, and by the best barristers that there are.”

Join us as we continue a real-life journey through criminal justice – because #CriminalJusticeMatters.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced on behalf of the Criminal Bar Association by Adam Batstone Media & Communications.

For any further information on issues raised in this series contact James Rossiter, CBA director of Communications

07985117887

In this sixth episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the authoritative podcast from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales, the former chair of the CBA Kirsty Brimelow KC talks to the stars and trailblazers of the Criminal Bar. In this episode she talks to Courtenay Griffiths KC

This episode contains racist language which some listeners may find offensive.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced and edited by ⁠Adam Batstone Media & Communications⁠

In this fifth episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the authoritative podcast from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales, the former chair of the CBA Kirsty Brimelow KC talks to stars and trailblazers at the Criminal Bar. In this episode she talks to Laurie-Anne Power KC and Jaime Hamilton KC.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced and edited by ⁠Adam Batstone Media & Communications⁠

In this fourth episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the authoritative podcast from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales, the former chair of the CBA Kirsty Brimelow KC talks to some of the stars and trailblazers of the Criminal Bar. Here she speaks to Jeremy Dein KC and Nina Graham KC.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced and edited by ⁠Adam Batstone Media & Communications⁠

In this third episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the authoritative podcast from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales, the former chair of the CBA Kirsty Brimelow KC talks to Mary Prior KC about the issues surrounding the criminal justice system relating to rape and serious sexual assault cases.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced and edited by ⁠Adam Batstone Media & Communications⁠

In this episode of the first series of Criminal Justice Matters - the authoritative podcast series from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales - the former chair of the CBA, Kirsty Brimelow KC, talks to Laurie-Anne Power KC about their lives and choice to pursue a career at the criminal bar.

The Criminal Justice Matters podcast is produced and edited by Adam Batstone Media & Communications

In this second episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the authoritative podcast from the Criminal Bar Association of England & Wales, the former chair of the CBA Kirsty Brimelow KC talks to young junior barristers Zayd Ahmed and Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe about their decision to join the criminal bar.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced and edited by ⁠Adam Batstone Media & Communications⁠

In this second episode of Criminal Justice Matters, the podcast series from the Criminal Bar Association of England and Wales, Mary Prior KC, Vice Chair of the CBA explains how serious delays in the courts are jeopardising the entire justice system.

We hear from Paul, a man who spent four years on bail awaiting trial. He talks about the impact on his life, from his family and friends putting him on suicide watch to the loss of his job and being ostracized by many in his community.

The former Resident Judge at Leeds Crown Court, Peter Collier KC, describes how his final years on the bench were characterized by a squeeze on funding from the Ministry of Justice and what that meant for the number of sitting days, the government measure for how much our Crown Courts were open and holding hearings including trials each year.

Crown Court rooms were open for 109,000 sitting days in 2011 but by April 2019 they had been cut to around 82,300 for the financial year which would end in March 2020 which is effectively a 25% reduction. Delays to trials mounted and the backlog rose 25% in just one year before Covid even began.

Jonathan Dunne, a criminal barrister with over 30 years’ experience prosecuting and defending cases involving serious sexual and violent offences, explains why he set up the @CourtsIdle Twitter account to monitor the rapid decline in Crown Court sitting time in England and Wales. A decline which has seen the backlog of criminal cases double regardless of the impact of Covid or the barristers’ strike action.

The current backlog of criminal cases stands at approximately 70,000, more than double the backlog of just 33,000 at the start of 2019. These figures are not mere numbers; they represent tens of thousands of people like Paul whose lives are on hold.

The consequence of years of underfunding is that our criminal justice system is teetering on the brink of collapse.

We, the criminal barristers tasked with prosecuting and defending criminal cases, are working back-to-back on cases to try and maintain fair trials amid mounting delays.

As Mary Prior KC concludes “The human cost of delay is monumental.”

Join us as we continue a real-life journey through criminal justice – because Criminal Justice Matters.

Criminal Justice Matters is produced on behalf of the Criminal Bar Association by Adam Batstone Media & Communications.

For any further information on issues raised in this series contact James Rossiter CBA director of Communications

07985117887