New figures revealing record court backlogs in England and Wales provide further evidence that the government should scrap the previous administration’s plans to restrict access to jury trials.
The latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show the magistrates’ court backlog has increased 9% year-on-year, meaning that any plans to shift more cases into the magistrates could cause further delays to justice.
These record court backlog figures show that complainants, defendants and witnesses are all waiting longer than ever for justice. The Bar Council is repeating its call for urgent investment in the criminal justice system, ahead of the October Budget.
The latest figures for Q2 (April to June) 2026, published today, show:
-
There are 80,829 open cases in the Crown Courts – a new series peak, which is a 3% increase on the previous year (Q2 2025: 78,226) and a small increase on last quarter (Q1 2026: 80,437)
-
In the magistrates, there are 380,230 open cases – a 9% increase on the previous year (Q2 2025: 347,365) and a 2% increase on the previous quarter (Q1 2026: 371,980)
The number of cases open for a year or more has reached a peak of 23,706, which is 22% higher than the previous year and 5% higher than the previous quarter. The median age of open cases has continued to increase, reaching 203 days, meaning complainants, defendants and witnesses are waiting longer than ever for justice.
The Bar Council has long called for more funding for our overstretched and resource-starved justice system and measures to tackle inefficiencies to reduce the court backlogs. Following our calls for change, the government lifted the cap on the number of days courts can ‘sit’ each year and recently announced new specialist rape and sexual offence courts to expedite these cases, but there is much more to be done to ensure cases are heard sooner and to improve access to justice.
While the overall case backlog has increased, the Bar Council has highlighted specific Crown Courts where concerted action has been taken already to reduce the backlogs, for example in Maidstone and Canterbury Crown Courts where the increase in sitting days and the use of additional court rooms has helped to reduce the number of outstanding cases. In Preston Crown Court, domestic abuse cases are prioritised which has seen a 16% reduction in waiting time for cases to be listed.
Kirsty Brimelow KC, Chair of the Bar Council, appeared on BBC Radio London this morning and was asked how the court backlog grew so large in the first place.
She said: "We’ve got here through decades of underinvestment in the criminal justice system. There is some welcome movement now with putting money and resources back into the system, but it’s still way below where it was even 10 years ago.”
She added that the data supports that the measures already being applied by judges and barristers, such as expedited listing, were having a positive effect in reducing delays. However, Kirsty argues the criminal justice system needs long-term strategy with no more “cutting corners”.