These new figures should shame Labour - the justice system is 'crumbling'

A record number of rape victims are facing agonising battles for justice as the courts crisis intensifies.

More than 4,000 cases are amongst the growing number of trials waiting to be heard, new Ministry of Justice figures revealed on Thursday.

Alarmingly for ministers, who have vowed to halve violence against women and girls, the backlog in rape cases has rocketed seven-fold from 573 in June 2019 to 4,086 in June 2025.

It has also increased by 30% in the past year - when Labour took office, according to analysis by the Criminal Bar Association.

The number of sexual offence cases waiting to be heard has also soared by 20% in a year, rising from 11,062 to 13,328.

And the overall backlog has also soared by 10% during Sir Keir Starmer's first year in office - from 70,893 to 78,329.

Legal sources told the Daily Express they had not seen a 10% year-on-year increase since Covid, when courts ground to a halt.

Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said: "These court delays are indefensible. The court backlog has grown significantly under Labour and they still can't say when things will improve. Victims deserve so much better.

"David Lammy must make use of the thousands of court sitting days being disregarded. It's disgraceful that rape trials are being scheduled for 2029 when crown court rooms are routinely sitting half empty."

Some 19,164 cases had been open for at least a year at the end of June, up 17% from 16,378 a year earlier and the highest since current data began.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: "Just today, Isleworth Crown Court listed a case offering a trial date in October 2029. Criminal barristers who prosecute and defend cases involving the very vulnerable have been working to keep this crumbling system from collapsing for years - but it has become unsustainable.

"The right approach now is to fix the infrastructure of the courts, focus on the many efficiency measures that could improve productivity, and open back up court rooms that have been shut for a year or more to claw back wasted time.

"We know the political will is there at the highest ministerial office to restore hope to victims and those accused of crime in their long wait for justice by targeted reinvestment into our courts and criminal barristers upon whom the public relies."

Nearly one in five (18%) backlog cases that had been open for at least two years as of the end of June 2025 were sexual offences.

This is up from 13% in June 2024 and 11% in June 2023.

Some 1,070 cases involving sexual offences had been open for two years or more at the end of June

It is the first time this figure has been above 1,000 since current records began in 2016.

The total is up sharply from 776 cases in June 2024 and 689 in 2023.

There were 431 rape cases open for at least two years as of June, compared with 273 12 months earlier and 261 in 2023.

Rape cases accounted for 7% of the two-year backlog in June, up from 5% in 2024 and 4% in 2023.

The category of offence that makes up the single largest proportion of cases open for at least two years is that of violence against the person, accounting for 25% of the total in June, up slightly from 23% in both 2024 and 2023.

Drug offences made up 15% of the total in June, down from 18% in 2024 and 21% in 2023.

Overall, some 5,913 crown court cases in England and Wales had been open for at least two years as of June 30, while a record 19,164 had been open for at least one year.

A landmark review, led by Sir Brian Leveson, recommended that 220 offence categories would no longer have an automatic right to be tried by a jury.

Suspected sex offenders and drug dealers are amongst thousands of defendants who could be tried instead by a judge and two magistrates in a new division of the Crown Court.

And anyone facing a charge carrying a maximum sentence of two years in jail would lose their right to opt for a jury trial.

Katie Kempen, chief executive of the charity Victim Support, said the figures showed many victims are "waiting years for their case to come to trial, their lives on hold while they are denied access to justice".

She added: "These are not just statistics - they are real people, often struggling to cope, losing faith in the system, and facing serious emotional and psychological consequences.

"At the same time, vital victims' services have faced devastating funding cuts in the past year - services which are a lifeline to victims facing lengthy delays, preventing them from dropping out of the criminal justice process altogether.

"The Government cannot allow the backlog to continue growing, while cutting funding for the very services which support victims through the process."

Elsewhere, Westminster Magistrates' Court was closed due to a lack of water on Thursday.

Manchester Arena bomb plotter Hashem Abedi was among those due to appear at the court charged with attempting to murder prison officers, but court officials said there was no water in the building and that it was a public health risk.

There is also a new record backlog in magistrates' courts of 361,027 cases, up 25% on 289,595 a year earlier.

The rise comes as magistrates were given more sentencing powers in October last year, allowing them to hear cases that carry a maximum prison sentence of up to 12 months, up from six months previously.

The move aimed to free up crown court time to deal with the most serious cases and cut the backlog while also seeking to better-support victims.