Justice Minister is committed to reducing delays
in the Criminal Justice System despite the difficulties hindering
progress.
Delay in criminal cases is one of the biggest challenges facing
the justice system and is a key priority for the Justice
Minister.
The Minister said:
“Delay can impact negatively on those who come into contact with
the criminal justice system as well as the confidence of the
wider community. This is a huge issue for victims and
witnesses as well as for the accused and all the families
involved.
“If we are to truly speed up justice, we need to reduce avoidable
delay, reduce demand on the system, free up capacity and look at
more proportionate and effective responses to offending
behaviours. This is what the speeding up justice programme
is leading on, taking a whole system approach.”
Delays in bringing cases to court, contribute to pressures
elsewhere in the system. This includes long case processing
times which can result in individuals spending longer on remand.
The Minister said:
“Prisons are under pressure like never before. Our prison
population is at an all-time high with 41.1% of prisoners on
remand. Time spent on remand can result in individuals
being released with time served and no rehabilitation work
completed. We must break this cycle.
“The judiciary need viable alternatives to custody and that is
why I have sought views on a bail support scheme. This
scheme will seek to support women in the community while they
await trial and if successful, would be rolled out wider.
“Other options I am considering are out of court disposals.
This is not about going soft on criminals. It is not about
‘giving criminals a slap on the wrist'. It is about
strengthening the tools already available to the PSNI and
PPS. It is about diverting some cases away from a busy
court system. It is about concentrating our limited
resources on bringing the most serious offences before the
courts.”
Continuing, the Minister highlighted the socioeconomic factors
that are increasingly impacting on offending. She said:
“Poverty, social deprivation, mental health issues, substance
misuse and homelessness are having a huge impact on society and
on the justice system. These issues create an environment
which can disproportionately increase the likelihood of
offending. If these issues are not addressed upstream, the
consequences are felt downstream within the justice system.
Justice alone will not fix this. We need a whole government
approach to tackle these issues, and I am absolutely up for that
conversation.”
Driving forward the Speeding up Justice programme and developing
a cross-governmental strategy to reduce offending and reoffending
are targets and actions within the Programme for Government
2024-2027.
In conclusion, the Minister said:
“If we are committed to improving the life chances and life
choices of our people then we must reevaluate our approach and
refocus our energies and resources. We must unclog our
justice system, beginning with the root causes. Only then
can we truly reform and modernise to deliver a justice system
which is sustainable long-term.”
