Following yesterday’s first episode with @Channel4News, a quick follow-up to the @MoJGovUK’s response.
The MoJ said: “Crown Court waiting times were at their lowest since 2014 prior to the pandemic.”
This is dishonest.
[SHORT THREAD]
The MoJ said: “Crown Court waiting times were at their lowest since 2014 prior to the pandemic.”
This is dishonest.
[SHORT THREAD]
While it is right to say that the backlog peaked at over 53,000 cases in 2014, and started to fall, it increased sharply again at the end of 2018, and was continuing to grow well before Covid-19. 
The length of time between the date of an alleged offence and the completion of a trial in the Crown Court has soared. The way the MoJ claim that “waiting times have fallen” is by including in their figures the cases where defendants plead guilty - ie where there is no trial.
Long before we had even heard of Covid-19, we were frequently listing trials in the Crown Court *years* after the event. For @MoJGovUK to suggest that cases like Joshua’s are in any way linked to the pandemic is simply a lie.
