Question
5. What steps his Department is taking to reduce the court backlog.
Answer
The Crown court backlog stands at nearly 81,000 cases, with victims facing intolerable delays for justice. The Government are gripping this crisis in three ways: through record investment, which is lifting the financial limit on sitting days; through modernisation, including through the use of technology in our courts, for example, for virtual remand hearings; and, of course, through our Courts and Tribunals Bill, which will ease pressure on the Crown courts by ensuring proportionate allocation of resource, and redressing the balance between victims and defendants in our criminal justice system.29% vibes
Verdict: GREEN (82/100)
The reply directly answers the question about what the department is doing to address the Crown court backlog. It names specific measures: lifting the financial limit on sitting days, expanding technology such as virtual remand hearings, and the Courts and Tribunals Bill. Some of the wording is promotional, but the concrete actions give the asker substantive information to work with.
How we got there
| Question item | Coverage | Specificity | Rationale |
|---|---|---|---|
| What is the department doing about the court backlog? | Addressed | Direct | The question asks what the department is doing about the Crown court backlog, and the reply names three concrete mechanisms: lifting the financial limit on sitting days through record investment, technology-enabled modernisation such as virtual remand hearings, and the Courts and Tribunals Bill for proportionate allocation of resource. Statements 3 and 7 contain some rhetorical framing, but the specific actions in 4–6 carry the substance of the answer. |