Sarah Sackman KC MP, the minister of state in the Ministry of Justice, announces plans to look at reforms in the Crown Court as she says they have “inherited a criminal court system in crisis”.
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00:00We've inherited a criminal court system in crisis.
00:04Today, the figures show that the backlog is at record levels and it's rising.
00:08That's a consequence not just of the pandemic,
00:10but of the previous government's political choices
00:12and failure to grip that situation.
00:14As a government, we've taken some important first steps
00:16to try and get on top of the crisis
00:18by increasing the number of Crown Court sitting days,
00:21extending magistrates' powers so that we can free up capacity
00:24within our criminal courts to deal with the most serious of cases
00:28and put less serious cases in the magistrates' courts.
00:31But the truth of the matter is that's not going to be enough.
00:33We need bold and fundamental reform,
00:35which is why today we've announced Sir Brian Leveson
00:39will be conducting a wholesale review
00:41to look at reforms in the Crown Court,
00:44looking at pretty much everything that you can imagine,
00:47reclassification of offences,
00:48whether we need to extend magistrates' sentencing powers,
00:52whether we need to explore the idea of an intermediate court.
00:54All options will be on the table
00:56because such is the scale of the crisis
00:58that we're failing to deliver swift justice for victims.