Barristers vote for all-out strike set to cripple crown courts in England and Wales

Criminal defence barristers are to go on an all-out indefinite strike from next week, bringing thousands of crown court cases to a grinding halt.

More than 6,000 hearings were disrupted by the first 19 days of a strike that started in June over the government rates paid to defend people who cannot afford legal representation.

Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) have voted to escalate the action, which originally started with a two-day walkout, after ministers refused to negotiate on their demands.

Dominic Raab, the justice secretary, has not met with the group and the government did not signal any change in its position following the announcement on Monday morning.

He is currently on holiday in Surrey, although a spokesperson said he was in regular contact with Ministry of Justice officials and would return to work later this week.

Official figures suggest that for every full working week that criminal barristers strike, around 1,300 cases, including 300 trials, will be disrupted.

A justice minister called the action “irresponsible” and accused barristers of lengthening waits for justice, but victims’ advocates said the government was responsible for the situation through its “severe and reckless underfunding” of the criminal justice system.

The complete walkout will officially start on 5 September after almost 80 per cent of barristers who voted backed the escalation. A further 11 per cent wanted to maintain the current pattern of alternating weeks of action, while 9 per cent voted for all action to stop.

It means that the last day working day for criminal barristers taking part in the strike will be this Friday, 26 August.

The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Dame Vera Baird QC, said the strike was the “latest symptom of a criminal justice system that is severely and recklessly underfunded”.

She said victims were already suffering from a “dangerous shortage” of criminal barristers and the backlog of almost 60,000 crown court cases.

“Any further exodus of criminal barristers would deal a crushing blow to criminal justice system,” Dame Vera warned.

“It will also further shatter the trust of victims, who have already suffered unconscionable delay. We urgently need the government to get back round the table to negotiate a fair resolution.”

The Victims’ Commissioner for London, Claire Waxman, said thousands of victims would be affected by the strike but “many more have suffered through years of government inaction”.

“These strikes are not the cause of this justice crisis, but are the ultimate symptom from years of government’s chronic under-resourcing, ignoring mounting evidence of the issues, and dismissing growing calls from those who know best,” she added.

“Vulnerable rape victims are waiting over four years for their case to reach trial and are dropping out of the justice process at record rates, allowing serious offenders to go free, putting the public at risk.

“This is a tipping point for justice in this country. The government can either come to the table to properly fund and support those who keep justice moving, or they will be known as the government that ultimately broke our justice system.”

Data released by the Ministry of Justice shows that the first 19 days of action, which took place between 27 June and 5 August, caused 6,235 court cases to be disrupted, including 1,415 trials, across England and Wales.

Among the trials delayed as a result of the barristers’ strike is that of three men accused of stabbing a 16-year-old boy to death in London.

They were due to go on trial at the Old Bailey last month but the case was delayed until June 2023.

In a separate case involving an alleged neo-Nazi, at Swansea Crown Court, a jury had to be discharged because several members could not sit for the extra three weeks needed to work around the strike action.

A judge told the court he had no choice but to set a new date in the “unusual circumstances”, and the trial is now due to take place next March.

The percentage of cases that crown courts reported being affected by the strike has ranged between 9 per cent in a week that saw two days of action, to 17 per cent during the first Monday to Friday walkout.

Since the start of the action, only a quarter of trials have been officially categorised as “effective” - meaning they started on the scheduled date and were completed in the normal way - compared to 43 per cent in the previous three months.

Dozens more trials were delayed by judges before the CBA began its action, in anticipation of the effect it would have. It comes amid a backlog of almost 60,000 crown court cases in England and Wales.

Some trials are now being scheduled in 2024 and there are concerns that growing numbers of victims will drop out of prosecutions because of the agonising wait for justice.

Kirsty Brimelow QC, vice chair of the CBA, said the action was a “last resort”, telling BBC Breakfast: “The remedy is for an injection of money into the backlog of cases, which currently stands at 60,000 cases, that barristers are working on that will cost the government only £1.1m per month. Currently, it’s costing much more for the courts to sit empty.”

The number of outstanding cases was worsened by government cuts to the days they could sit on, and then exacerbated by the Covid pandemic and CBA strike.

On average, it currently takes a year and two months between an offence being committed to the completion of a resulting crown court case - and the number is expected to rise.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing” to resolve the barristers’ strike or several other ongoing industrial disputes.

“I quite understand, whether it’s barristers or others, why people and how people are struggling to make ends meet,” the former director of public prosecutions told reporters in Walthamstow, east London.

“I want to see the government step in and actually help resolve these issues; instead of that we’ve got a government doing absolutely nothing.”

The government previously announced that criminal legal aid rates will rise by 15 per cent for new cases from September, but the increase will not be retrospective, meaning that fees for those stuck in the backlog are paid at old rates.

An increase of “at least 15 per cent above present levels” was the core recommendation of an independent review of legal aid that was published in December.

Its author, Sir Christopher Bellamy, said the review had been announced by the government three years previously and that underlying problems had been flagged “for many years before that”.

“There is in my view no scope for further delay,” he added. The CBA said it waited 105 days for a government response to the recommendations and that several had not been adopted.

A letter to members initiating the ballot for an all-out strike said barristers had walked out with a “heavy heart” after years of exploitation by “successive governments determined to deliver justice on the cheap”.

Justice minister Sarah Dines said: “This is an irresponsible decision that will only see more victims face further delays and distress.

“The escalation of strike action is wholly unjustified considering we are increasing criminal barristers’ fees by 15 per cent.”

The Ministry of Justice previously said it had “repeatedly explained” to the CBA that backdating pay would require a “fundamental change” in how fees are paid.

It said the reform would cost a disproportionate amount of taxpayers’ money and would take longer to implement, meaning barristers would have to wait longer for payment.