\n<\/p>\n
A new post of prime minister\u2019s criminal justice adviser and the widespread use of remote hearings are among the recommendations of a government-commissioned independent review on tackling the courts\u2019 backlog in England and Wales.<\/p>\n
The second part of Sir Brian Leveson\u2019s review \u2013 unlike the first part, which recommended slashing jury trials \u2013 focuses on efficiencies that can be achieved without legislation.<\/p>\n
The report, published on Wednesday, contains more than 130 recommendations designed to speed up justice for victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have never seen pressure on the courts at such an unacceptable level \u2013 the system stands on the brink of collapse,\u201d said Leveson.<\/p>\n
\u201cVictims, witnesses and defendants are waiting months, sometimes years, for cases to come to trial \u2013 unable to move on with their lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cSystem-wide inefficiency is undermining the ability of the criminal courts to function, exacerbating the strain caused by the demanding caseload.\u201d<\/p>\n
The prime minister\u2019s criminal justice adviser would be a civil servant sitting at the heart of government tasked with overseeing work across the different elements of the system \u2013 courts, prisons, prosecutors and police.<\/p>\n
Leveson said first hearings in the magistrates court and preliminary hearings in crown court should be remote, except for a bench trial when the judge sits alone.<\/p>\n
He recommends that trials should continue to be in person but attendance for professional witnesses such as police officers should be remote by default. Defendants in jail on remand should be allowed to attend sentencing hearings remotely, except when victim impact statements are to be delivered, the report says.<\/p>\n
At a press briefing on Tuesday, Leveson defended his previously published recommendation to limit jury trials, saying: \u201cIf not this, then what?\u201d<\/p>\n
He defended his recommendation that judges should sit with two lay people (magistrates) in new \u201cswift courts\u201d but declined to criticise the government for removing the lay element in its proposal so that judges will sit alone.<\/p>\n
Leveson said the problems identified in his reports needed <\/strong>to be addressed \u201cas quickly as possible because the one thing we do not have is the luxury of great time\u201d.<\/em><\/p>\n Richard Atkinson, the former president of the Law Society and a criminal defence solicitor, said: \u201cSir Brian\u2019s report demonstrates there is no single fix to bring our criminal justice system back from the brink and ensure swift and fair justice is delivered.<\/p>\n \u201cSir Brian shows that sustained investment is needed throughout to resuscitate our criminal justice system.\u201d<\/p>\n He welcomed some of the proposals, but said: \u201cWe disagree with some recommendations that may compromise the fairness and safety of the justice system, including providing legal advice by video link to people detained in police stations, and remote-first court hearings after arrest where people\u2019s liberty is at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the chair of the Criminal Bar Association, and the vice-chair Andrew Thomas KC, said: \u201cWe commend Sir Brian for shining a light in forensic detail on the chronic underfunding and manifest, cost wasting inefficiencies. There are no shortcuts to be had.<\/p>\n \u201cAll of government \u2013 including the Treasury \u2013 must recognise that a properly functioning criminal justice system underpins the economic prosperity and social cohesion which this government has pledged to the electorate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A new post of prime minister\u2019s criminal justice adviser and the widespread use of remote hearings are among the recommendations of a government-commissioned independent review on tackling the courts\u2019 backlog in England and Wales. The second part of Sir Brian Leveson\u2019s review \u2013 unlike the first part, which recommended slashing jury trials \u2013 focuses on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43658,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[680,2345,569,4516,12999,2282,7660,1085,1119,392],"class_list":{"0":"post-43657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-calls","9":"tag-collapse","10":"tag-courts","11":"tag-criminal","12":"tag-hearings","13":"tag-justice","14":"tag-remote","15":"tag-review","16":"tag-save","17":"tag-system"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}