Defence lawyers warn that plans to speed up trials will require 'massive resources'

NAREY PILOTS: roll-out will enable defendants to enter a plea within days of being charged

Criminal defence lawyers have accused the government of 'living in cloud cuckoo land' over money-saving plans to speed up serious criminal trials.Last week, the Home Office announced plans to cut red tape for indictable offences in January.

The government is hoping the roll-out of the Narey pilots of the last year will remove a 'significant amount' of work from magistrates' courts by allowing defendants to plead sooner and the Crown Court to take over earlier on.

A report by accountants Ernst & Young on a pilot suggests this could save the government 15.7 million.The Attorney-General, Lord Williams of Mostyn QC, said: 'Considerable time and resources will be saved by allowing defendants to indicate a plea within a matter of days after charge.'But Mark Haslam, vice-president of the London Criminal Courts Solicitors Association, warned that the initiative requires 'massive resources'.

He said he was not against improving the efficiency of the criminal justice system, but did not agree with the government's idea that 'speed is everything'.

He explained: 'They seem to be living in cloud cuckoo land.

They completely fail to understand that it will ultimately cost more in the long run to have more hearings in the Crown Court.'John Williams, head of criminal at Ormrods and a member of the steering group for the Croydon pilot, said the new system is 'putting a lot of pressure on the defence'.

'It doesn't serve the interests of justice to speed things up to this extent...

Defence solicitors will have only two weeks to fully prepare on of the most serious cases, whereas before the period for preparation would have been a couple of months before a plea is entered,' he said.

The fast-track to Crown Court will start with a magistrates' court hearing to look at bail and legal aid followed by a 'preliminary' hearing, with set deadlines.

Committal proceedings will be scrapped; instead, defendants challenging prosecution evidence will have to make an 'application for dismissal' in the Crown Court.

Anne Mizzi