In a recent judgment (R v P and Others, Woolwich Crown Court, (14/09/2020)) which involved the question whether the duration of custody for an unconvicted defendant could be extended beyond the legal time limit on account of the COVID-19 crisis, a senior judge was required to rule upon the efficacy of the government’s handling of the administration of criminal justice since the onset of the pandemic. In setting aside defence counsel’s wider submission to the court that the response from HMCTS to the crisis has been deficient, Mrs Justice Whipple ‘was not persuaded… that there is at present a systemic failure’.
In light of the presiding judge’s further remark that the ‘judiciary works closely with HMCTS’ it is perhaps unsurprising that an excusatory tone towards government was handed down in this way. Questions of objectivity aside, anyone familiar with the dysfunctional state of the justice apparatus in England and Wales would find it more difficult to argue against
