The criminal justice system is in ‘slow-motion collapse’, according to the author of a new report that reveals nearly half of the duty solicitor population is 55 or older, the magistrates' court backlog has risen sharply in just a few years while the number of permanent court staff has shrunk by nearly a third.

A criminal justice 'performance tracker' published by the Institute for Government, a thinktank to help government be more effective, reinforces what lawyers working on the frontline have warned for years – that criminal justice ‘is coming apart at the seams’.

On the criminal courts, the report found that the magistrates’ court backlog has increased by 62% since December 2019, the number of permanent court staff has declined by 30% since 2010/11 and 5,000 more crown court trials could have been carried out last year if 2016 productivity levels had been maintained.

The number of duty solicitors under 45 shrunk by 55% between 2017 and 2024. Four in 10 duty solicitors are 55 or older, up from 24% in 2017. Only 6% are under 35, compared with 14% in 2017.

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‘In the medium and long term, this presents a severe risk to the basic right to legal advice as the existing workforce retires with no one to replace them. The same trend is evident among legal aid solicitors more generally. The profession appears to be losing people in the critical early to mid-career stages: the number of solicitors at legal aid firms aged under 35 in 2023/24 was 29% below 2017/18 and 45% below 2014/15,’ the report says.

The report also contains shocking figures on the police and prisons. For instance, half of roles in police rape and serious sexual offences teams are filled by trainees. Serious prison assaults have risen by 58% since 2014.

Author Cassia Rowland, a senior researcher at the institute, said: 'Criminal justice is in slow-motion collapse. Without adequate funding and a cross-system approach for Labour's reforms, the risk is an even greater crisis than the system was experiencing when it entered office last summer.'

The report was produced in partnership with the Nuffield Foundation.