Court closures have ‘significantly contributed’ to the backlog and the government should consider reopening recently closed courts to increase capacity, the Law Society has told MPs.

In written evidence to the public accounts committee, published today, the Law Society identified 11 court buildings which have recently closed but not yet been sold, which ‘could potentially be opened at a minimal cost’. Reopening these courts ‘would also contribute to their local economies, combining economic renewal and access to justice’, it said.

The Law Society also suggested that the government should ‘commit to fully funding court repairs so existing court rooms are not closed due to maintenance issues’, which would be ‘another relatively inexpensive way of boosting capacity in the courts’.

Chancery Lane welcomed measures introduced to address the backlog, including Nightingale courts, additional investment in the justice system and the removal of the cap on sitting days. However, it warned that ‘the shortage of judges, court staff and practitioners to attend cases is becoming a serious concern that will affect efforts to lower the criminal courts backlog if it is not addressed through long-term investment’.

‘Because the system has been underfunded for so long, it will not be possible to generate the necessary additional capacity quickly, but if left unaddressed the problem will only grow,’ the Law Society said.

The lack of resources available to defence solicitors will also ‘limit efforts to tackle the backlog’, it adds, with many firms already working at full capacity and therefore unable to ‘support a greater number of cases’.

The Society emphasised that, while the backlog was ‘worsened and exacerbated’ by the pandemic, the problem pre-dates it. ‘The backlogs primarily lie in prolonged underinvestment in the justice system, including capping the number of court sitting days, reductions in court capacity and court rooms remaining idle in recent years,’ it said.

The commitment to increase the Ministry of Justice’s budget by £2.2 billion over the spending round was also welcomed, but the  Society said ‘this level of investment must continue and must extend to all parts of the criminal justice system’ in order to bring the backlog ‘down to manageable levels’.