Justice Secretary Robert Buckland accused of misleading MPs over crown court cuts
2 min read
The Justice Secretary Robert Buckland has faced criticism from leading barristers that he misled the Commons Justice Committee over crown court funding cuts.
In October, Mr Buckland had told the committee that the number of cases brought before the crown court was declining.
He used this as an argument to divert money to family law courts, where demand was increasing.
“We do have to adjust our priorities according to the evidence,” he said at the time, as MPs were asking him why crown court cases were being significantly delayed and cuts to the number of trail days were being planned.
But The Times quotes leading barristers who claim Mr Buckland’s justifications were based on misrepresentations, using out-of-date analysis and ‘artificial’ statistics.
“The latest statistics are looking at cases which first came to the crown court about a year ago when the effect of reduced sitting days had not taken hold,” said Kate Brunner, QC, the leader of the Western Circuit of the Bar.
“[The] justice committee may have been given the impression . . . that the reduction in the new cases coming into the crown court was a naturally occurring event, independent of government. That may be right, but government funding can have a profound effect on charging levels and therefore crown court receipts. Although crown court work had reduced up to 2018, that reduction was artificial.”
Ms Brunner suggested that cuts to the police and Crown Prosecution Service, resulting in the loss of 20,000 police officers and a third of prosecutors, was limiting the "numbers of criminals who can be caught and prosecuted, which lowers the work coming into crown courts. That is then used as a reason to reduce sitting days and cut spending on the courts".
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