Britain’s criminal justice system is under strain, and that has been the case over a long period of time and under a string of governments. Court backlogs remain too high and victims wait too long. But the growing focus on curtailing jury trials risks mistaking symptoms for causes.
Data I received from the Attorney General’s Office reveals a more fundamental problem. Across England and Wales, 4.5 per cent of Crown Prosecutor posts are currently vacant. However, in the West Midlands, that figure is 6.9 per cent – 2.4 percentage points higher than the national average – and up by 5.5 percentage points compared with last year. That is not a marginal difference. It is a structural weakness in one of the most pressured parts of the justice system.
Crown Prosecutors are not peripheral actors. They decide whether cases proceed, what charges are brought, and how evidence is tested. When prosecutors are stretched thin, cases stall before they even reach a courtroom. Files are returned to police for further work, hearings are adjourned, and trials collapse — not because juries exist, but because the system lacks the capacity to prepare cases properly.
This is why the current emphasis on jury trials is misplaced. Restricting jury trials may shorten some proceedings at the margins, but it does nothing to address the upstream failure caused by chronic under-resourcing of the Crown Prosecution Service. You cannot clear a backlog by narrowing access to justice while leaving the engine of prosecution understaffed.
For the West Midlands, a prosecutor vacancy rate higher than the national average inevitably translates into longer delays and poorer outcomes for victims. No reform of trial procedure can compensate for prosecutors who are simply not there.
This should force a rethink. If the Government is serious about restoring confidence in the justice system, it must prioritise recruitment, retention and regional capacity in the CPS. That means competitive pay, manageable workloads, and targeted action where vacancy rates are highest.
Jury trials are not an indulgence; they are a cornerstone of public trust in criminal justice. The real threat to that trust is a system that cannot bring cases to court in a timely and effective manner. Fixing that requires investment in people, not the quiet dismantling of principles.
Until the Government confronts the CPS staffing crisis head on, attempts to tackle the court backlog will remain partial, and justice will continue to be delayed, not by juries, but by the absence of prosecutors to make the system work.
