Research based on reports from barristers has shown the "endemic" and "routine" nature of delays caused by the late delivery of prisoners to court, casting doubt over the validity of official data.
Over four months, more than 200 reports were made by barristers to the Bar Council – averaging 13 per week – of instances where individuals in custody were brought to court late or not at all.
Barristers said delays are "routine", describing trials not starting until the afternoon with whole weeks of court time being lost due to the delays, wasting time and resource, which has a huge impact on everyone involved in the case.
One barrister told the Bar Council that in a 60-day murder trial, the defendants were only brought to court on time “once or twice” with the trial not starting until midday on most days.
Another said: "Delays are now endemic due to defendants in custody not being produced at court on time.”
A quarter of reports (24%) said the delay lasted more than 5 hours, and 34% said they were delayed for between two and 5 hours. Almost half of reports (47%) said the delay had a “significant” impact on the smooth running of the case.
One barrister described how a delay was caused when the wrong defendant with the same name was brought to court – two weeks into a trial in which the defendant had been attending daily.
In another incident, a barrister said a trial was delayed because the van went back to the prison to collect a forgotten health and safety booklet.
The barrister said: “They turned around to collect the book rather than deliver my client on time. He faces an allegation of attempted murder with a firearm... Through no fault of his own, he has therefore missed a critical point of his trial.”
The findings show delays are taking place across the whole of England and Wales with reports coming from 69 courts and 59 prisons, demonstrating a “structural problem rather than a localised one”.
According to the Ministry of Justice, contractor performance for delivering prisoners to court remains consistently above 99.8%.
The Bar Council research found there was a ‘chasm’ between delays reported by barristers in court and official data, as data currently available through Prisoner Escort Custody Service (PECS) does not allow for full and accurate measuring of delays in prisoner delivery.
Nor does official data help untangle the reasons for the delays, which research found can occur anywhere along the journey from the prison cell to the dock and may or may not be attributable to the service overseen by PECS.
Sir Brian Leveson, when conducting his independent review of criminal courts, explored the challenges with prisoner transport, which he said are complex and rely on multi-agency communication.
Delays were found to not only have a detrimental impact on the timely functioning of court cases but also the wellbeing of all those involved in the case.
One barrister told how their heavily pregnant defendant was so distressed by the delays and miscommunication that they believe it led to her being hospitalised after the trial.
The Bar Council is now calling for the government to urgently prioritise the avoidable delays caused by late prisoner delivery and to improve data collection and measurements of contractor performance.
Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said: “The late delivery of prisoners to court must be addressed urgently rather than any more time and resource being wasted on limiting jury trials.
“There can be no dispute that there are repeated and widespread failures to deliver defendants to court on time. This report is only a snapshot of the issue, based on delays reported to the Bar Council – the true extent of delays is much greater. Even so, the data presented in this report demonstrate that the problems with late prisoner delivery are serious and widespread, and call into question the validity of PECS claim of over 99% compliance with their contractual monthly performance.
“The reality is that barristers experience wasted time every day due to late delivery to court and also issues with bringing defendants into the dock, often due to lack of PECS staff. This causes delays to people waiting for their case to start. It has the effect of adding to the delayed cases in the backlog.
“Instead of focusing on a part of the system that works and does not cause delays, namely juries, the government should urgently reform the PECS/prison delivery system that is a significant contributor to inefficiency."