By Press Association 2021
More than 20 Nightingale courts have opened to help clear the backlog
The backlog of criminal cases waiting to be dealt with by crown courts in England and Wales has hit its highest level in a year.
The latest Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures show there were 56,544 outstanding crown court cases at the end of January, up from 55,676 in December.
This is compared with 38,411 a year earlier, before the coronavirus pandemic took hold and courts were initially forced to shut as the country went into lockdown.
Overall, the backlog of criminal cases has fallen from a total of 455,374 in December to 441,791 in January.
The number of outstanding criminal cases in England and Wales crown courts was 56,544 at the end of January, a rise of over 16,000 compared to figures from last year, before Covid shut courts.
By Gazette reporter2021-03-10T11:27:00+00:00
Two thirds of UK citizens agree that curbs on freedoms put in place during the pandemic are rolled back afterwards, according to a major study on public attitudes to human rights commissioned by the legal professions to mark Justice Week 2021. People don’t expect the rule of law to take a backseat in a time of national emergency, the leaders of three professional bodies commented. We don’t know when or how we will emerge from the eye of the Covid-19 storm, but as we do it is vital the many layers limiting rights and freedoms that have been put in place are peeled back.
Lubna Shuja
When the Law Society’s vice-president I. Stephanie Boyce and deputy vice-president Lubna Shuja succeed to the post of president, they will follow in the footsteps of some distinguished forebears. Samuel Garrett is one who comes to mind. A City solicitor and brother of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, Garrett long argued for the admission of women to the legal profession. In 1919 he had the satisfaction of putting the motion to Council that, together with the Sex Disqualification(Removal) Act, opened the way.
There followed a long wait – not just to see a woman president of the Law Society, but even a single Council member. The latter, Eileen Evans, was elected to Council in 1977. Evans, the Gazette reported when she stood down in 1982, brought ‘common sense’ and ‘a feminine viewpoint which was particularly useful in the work of the subcommittee on Sexual and Racial Discrimination’.
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