11 April 2025
The Chancellor plans to cut 15% from the civil service budget in the next five years. How would this affect the courts and justice system? In this week’s NLJ, Mark Jones, partner, and Alex Curran, senior associate, Payne Hicks Beach, look at the potential impact from a range of perspectives if the Ministry of Justice budget is cut by 15%, including the criminal courts—where the backlog is so extreme that ‘at Snaresbrook Crown Court, trials for suspects on bail are currently being listed in November 2028’.
The civil and family courts are also affected, with thousands of children and their families caught up in lengthy delays. Jones and Curran explore whether non-court dispute resolution may help, albeit this path is not suitable for many people.
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