- Differences in how they approach data make it challenging to directly compare the three criminal jurisdictions of the UK: England and Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland.
- However, there are several ways to argue, based on available statistics, that NI has a worse backlog than England and Wales and a worse backlog than Scotland.
- For instance, NI has a far higher ratio of major cases taking over a year to complete than England and Wales; while per capita it has far more major cases and minor cases pending than Scotland.
On 14 November, an article in the Belfast Telegraph claimed that:
“Northern Ireland’s Crown Court is now backlogged until the autumn of 2024, with no new trials to be scheduled until at least September next year…
“With a limited number of Crown Court judges and court space, Northern Ireland continues to be the worst place in the UK for backlogs in the justice system.”
Is Northern Ireland the worst place in the UK for backlogs in the justice system? In particular, does it have the biggest backlogs in criminal court proceedings?
There is no agreed single metric for measuring court backlogs. In fact, there are several different measures all of which could be relevant.
Comparing data between the three UK jurisdictions – England and Wales, Scotland, and NI – is difficult because each jurisdiction either uses different measurements or collects different data than the others.
However, there are plausible ways to argue, using available data, that the backlog in Northern Ireland is worse than England and Wales and, similarly, worse than Scotland.
A significantly higher proportion of major cases have been pending for over a year in Northern Ireland than in England and Wales. NI also has a far higher number of magistrates court cases pending than England and Wales. In general, local cases tend to take a lot longer to complete than those in England and Wales.
NI has significantly more minor cases and more major cases pending, per capita, than Scotland.
Taken altogether, it can be argued fairly that NI has the worst criminal justice backlog in the UK and, on that basis, the claim is backed by evidence.
- Structures
Across the UK, the criminal justice system comprises different levels of court that, broadly speaking, deal with crimes of different severity.
In Northern Ireland, England and Wales, magistrates courts (including youth courts and family proceedings) hear less serious cases, most cases involving juveniles, and civil and family cases. All serious criminal cases are heard in the Crown Court. The Court of Appeal hears appeals on points of law in both criminal and civil cases (although appeals are not relevant to this fact check).
Scotland has its own judicial model, including four levels of court: the High Court hears cases concerning the most serious crimes, such as murder and rape; the Sheriff Courts handle the majority of criminal cases, split between the Sheriff solemn procedure (for cases of higher severity) and the Sheriff summary procedure (broadly lower severity); the Justice of the Peace Court hears minor summary cases, such as speeding; and the appeals courts.
The different model in Scotland makes comparisons across the UK more challenging. For the purposes of this fact check, the combination of both solemn procedures in the Scottish Sheriff Court and all High Court cases are deemed equivalent to the Crown Court in England, Wales and NI. The combination of summary Sheriff procedures and the Justice of the Peace courts is deemed equivalent to magistrates courts elsewhere.
- Measures
This fact check considers figures for:
- The total number of cases in the backlog
- The number of cases waiting over a year
- Processing times
However, assessing this claim is not straightforward, as it is challenging to find comparable measures and data across different jurisdictions.
Processing time in Scotland and in England and Wales is measured from the date of the offence to completion of any court case whereas in NI it is the time between the police first knowing of a crime to the end of court proceedings.
Furthermore, Scottish authorities told FactCheckNI they do not collect data around how many cases have been waiting more than a year.
This means that each of the three distinct jurisdictions either use different metrics or collect different data from one another.
- Backlogs and waits of more than a year
The court backlog is defined by the UK National Audit Office as all cases waiting to be heard or completed.
In England and Wales between July and September 2023 (i.e. the most up-to-date figures at the time of the claim) the total number of cases awaiting trial was 352,945 in magistrates courts and 66,547 in the Crown Court. Of the latter, a total of 17,790 had been waiting over a year – 26.7% of the total. Data around magistrates court cases waiting over a year was not collected.
Figures provided to us by the Department of Justice NI showed that, in Northern Ireland as of July 2023, there were 18,907 cases in the magistrates court backlog and 1,286 in the Crown Court. Of those, 8,745 magistrates cases and 1,047 crown court cases had been on the books for over a year (the latter representing 81.4% of all Crown Court cases).
In Scotland as of February 2023, there were 681 cases waiting to be heard in the High Court and 2,402 waiting for solemn procedures in the Sheriff Court (totalling 3,083). At the same time, 20,641 cases were waiting to be heard in a summary Sheriff procedure and 4,305 were scheduled for hearings in front of a Justice of the Peace (making 24,946 in total). Scotland does not capture data around how many cases have been waiting over a year.
| Pending cases in minor criminal courts | Minor cases waiting over a year | Percentage of minor cases waiting over a year | Pending cases in major criminal courts | Major cases waiting over a year | Percentage of major cases waiting over a year | |
| England and Wales | 352,945 | N/A | N/A | 66,547 | 17,790 | 26.73% |
| Northern Ireland | 18,907 | 8,745 | 46.25% | 1,286 | 1,047 | 81.42% |
| Scotland | 24,946 | N/A | N/A | 3,083 | N/A | N/A |
Figure 1 – sources: official figures from England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
This data is far from complete but, from what is available, there is a significant difference in the percentage of major cases waiting over a year in Northern Ireland compared with England and Wales, with local backlog far more significant.
Another factor to consider is population size. Comparing total case numbers is not comparing like with like. According to the ONS, the populations of each jurisdiction in mid 2022 (the latest figures) are 1.91 million in NI, 5.45 million in Scotland and 60.24 million total in England and Wales. Using this data, we can look at some of the figures around pending cases, per capita:
| Pending minor cases per 100k population | Pending major cases per 100k population | Major cases waiting over a year per 100k population | |
| England and Wales | 585.9 | 110.5 | 29.5 |
| Northern Ireland | 989.9 | 67.3 | 54.8 |
| Scotland | 457.7 | 56.6 | N/A |
Figure 2 – sources: official figures from England and Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland
Per capita, NI has more minor cases and more major cases pending per capita than Scotland. It has more minor cases per capita than England and Wales, fewer major cases per capita – but the number of major cases waiting over a year per capita is much higher here than in England and Wales.
Bear in mind that this is a crude measurement, and one which does not account for any difference in total crime rates across the three jurisdictions.
However, taken all together, there are several different measures that could be used as evidence that Northern Ireland has a worse criminal case backlog than either Scotland or England and Wales.
- Timeliness/processing time
In 2022-23, Crown Court cases in Northern Ireland took a median of 561 days to complete, an increase of 49% compared with 2021-22 (535 days).
For England and Wales, the 2022-23 medians for the four successive quarters of 2022-23 were 378 days (Apr-June 2022), 349 days (Jul-Sept 2022), 371 days (Oct-Dec 2022) and 398 (Jan-Mar 2023).
In Scotland, the processing time for High Court cases was 900 days. However, in our comparison High Court cases only make up a minority of the total cases deemed as major (681 ongoing cases, compared with 2,402 awaiting solemn procedure in the Sheriff Court).
Given that Northern Ireland’s measurement of timeliness begins from when police become aware of a crime, while the other two jurisdictions go back to the date of offence; it is clear that cases are broadly dealt with in a much less timely fashion here than they are in England and Wales.
Scotland’s figure for timeliness among major cases is much higher than Northern Ireland’s – but, as the Scottish figure omits the majority of major offences (by the definition used in this fact check), this is not a valid comparison.
Magistrates court cases (and the Scottish equivalent) tend to take less time across the UK as they are generally of lower complexity and do not require juries.
