Despite Keir Starmer’s professed determination to mete out swift and sure justice to those responsible for the wave of violence across the UK, a leading think tank has argued that the UK justice system is not up to the challenge presented by the disorder.
Writing today for the Institute of Government, Cassia Rowland argues that “The hangover of austerity and court backlogs are hindering the government’s response to this summer’s violence.”
She points to a significant disparity between the state of the justice system now, and back when the UK last suffered a similar level of disorder, in 2011. “Several days of riots ended up with five people dead and millions of pounds of damage,” she says. “Despite some criticism that the police took too long to bring the situation under control, the justice response was swift.
“Within 9 days, more than 3,000 people had been arrested, rising to nearly 4,000 by early September. Courts sat round the clock: almost 2,000 people had appeared in court by mid-October. Over 1,400 people ultimately ended up with prison sentences.”
In 2024, however, the situation is very different. Arguing that a decade of austerity and cuts across the Dept of Justice estate, UK courts, magistrates and prisons are simply not in a place to process and manage the anticipated number of offenders that may end up charged with offences.
And this, she argues, will be felt in the coming months: “Many fewer criminal lawyers, judges and magistrates mean courts are hearing fewer cases; in the case of the crown court, down a third on 2011. The case backlog is double what it was then, equivalent to 95,000 cases when adjusted for complexity.”
As to the solution, Rowland admits none of the structural problems can be solved overnight. However, along with some quick moves to repurpose existing prison facilities, she suggests a number of more radical ideas: “Bringing forward prisons’ early release measures, scheduled for 10 September, would free up thousands of spaces.
“Temporarily increasing the maximum sentence that can be handed out by magistrates’ courts from six months to 12 (as happened during the pandemic) would allow these courts to handle more serious offences, letting them be handled faster and freeing up crown courts to prioritise the most serious crimes.”
