Crumbling Crown courts: running repair bill tops £35m

More than 100 sitting days were lost in Crown courts in the first six months of this year due to ongoing repair work, the Gazette has learned – and £35m worth of running repairs is now outstanding across the estate.

Figures revealed in response to a freedom of information request show that 111 days were lost up to the end of June. The Ministry of Justice said that Hereford Crown Court, which has been closed since June 2020 after the roof collapsed, is the only building to have been shut because of unplanned works.

In total, 78 of the 84 Crown court buildings within the HMCTS estate have a repair request that has yet to be completed.

The average cost of outstanding repairs at each court building is around £455,000, meaning that £35m worth of repairs are waiting to be carried out across England and Wales.

Last year, lord chief justice Lord Burnett of Maldon said the state of certain courts was ‘frankly an embarrassment’ and that hundreds of millions needed to be spent to bring them up to scratch. He  suggested that lawyers who would otherwise be tempted to apply for the bench are deterred because their working life would be so much less comfortable.

Law Society president I. Stephanie Boyce said that after decades of underfunding and cuts, widespread investment is needed across the criminal justice system. ‘Given the huge backlog of outstanding Crown court cases which is causing unacceptable delays for victims and defendants, it is extremely disturbing to see so many court sitting days lost because of the poor state of the buildings,’ she added.

‘We have been raising the alarm about the crumbling state of our court buildings for some time now and with so many courts in need of repair it is inevitable more sitting days will be lost.’

The MoJ said that spending is prioritised to ensure that buildings are safe, secure and meet statutory requirements. A spokesperson added: ‘We spent over £100m on court maintenance and repairs last year and funded over 100,000 sitting days last year to keep justice moving.’

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