Latest figures reveal depth of crisis in South West’s courts
Bristol Crown Court(Image: BPM MEDIA)
The number of open cases in crown courts in the South West has nearly doubled in the last six years, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Justice. Between 2019 and 2025, the ‘open caseload’ leapt from around 3,200 cases in 2019 to around 6,200 cases in 2025.
Cases also take far longer to be resolved than they did six years ago; in 2019 the average time between a court receiving a case to it being completed was around 120 days, in 2025 it is about 200 days.
Victims of sexual offences are particularly let down by our legal system. It takes around 320 days for a sexual offences trial to be resolved, double the 120 days it took in 2019.
The problem is not limited to the South West, with the government’s figures revealing a huge 79,619 are awaiting completion across England and Wales. More than 20,000 cases have been open for over a year.
In a bid to tackle the backlog, jury trials are set to be scrapped for crimes which carry sentences of less than three years, justice secretary David Lammy announced at the start of December. That would lead to about half of trials in the UK currently heard by a jury being administered by only a judge or a magistrate.
Nearly 40 Labour MPs recently wrote to prime minister Keir Starmer saying they intended to vote against that proposal, saying it was “madness and will cause more problems than it solves”.
Minister for Courts and Legal Services, Sarah Sackman KC MP, said the shocking statistics were evidence of the need for a root and branch reform of the legal system.
“Victims are being let down by the crisis in our courts, she said.
“An overwhelming 6,200 cases in the South West are waiting for justice, with sexual offences cases taking around 320 days to come to trial. As brave survivors of these harrowing crimes find the courage to come forward, they deserve a system that works for them – not against them.
“We inherited a justice system on the brink of collapse. We know money alone can’t fix this; only fundamental reform can create deliver the swift and fair justice victims have been denied for far too long.”