Boris Johnson’s pledge to set up a royal commission to look at “serious change” needed to the criminal justice system has been broken after the government stopped work.
The former prime minister, who may be running for a second stint in Downing Street, announced the policy in the Conservatives’ 2019 election manifesto and confirmed it in the following Queen’s Speech.
“Our current justice system needs serious change, so we will establish a royal commission on the criminal justice process,” he said at the time.
Almost three years later, the commission has not started work. The Independent understands that no chair or commissioners have been selected and a terms of reference has not been drawn up to define its scope.
Steve Reed, the shadow justice secretary, said criminals were being “let off” and victims “let down”.
He told The Independent: “Prosecution rates for serious crimes like burglary, robbery, and fraud are so low they have effectively been decriminalised.
“Now the Tories are backtracking on their pledge to set up a royal commission – to cover up the impact of their disastrous decisions.”
The Ministry of Justice says the work was “paused” because of the demands of the Covid pandemic, but the government’s own timetable suggests that even if it is restarted it would be impossible for the commission to complete its work before the next general election.
The period since the royal commission was announced has seen police-recorded crime rocket to a new high while prosecutions hit a record low.
Victims are waiting longer than ever before for cases to reach court, and figures obtained by The Independent show that industrial action over a long-running dispute over defence barristers’ fees disrupted at least 15,000 crown court hearings between April and September.
The escalating strike, which ended last week, stopped more than 2,400 trials and affected hundreds more according to Ministry of Justice figures.
Kirsty Brimelow KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said there were not enough barristers to prosecute or defend and they went on strike to “prevent the complete collapse of the criminal justice system”.
She added: “Investment in a further inquiry or commission is not required. Rather urgent investment and reversal of two decades of cuts to funding of the criminal justice system is the clear answer.”
Legal aid payments were one of the issues expected to be covered by the royal commission on criminal justice, although its terms of reference have never been formally drawn up.
A source familiar with the process said the government had discussed potential commissioners but gone no further before officially deprioritising the plans.
“It won’t have been dropped officially because you don’t need to scrap it [for work to stop],” he told The Independent.
“It’s not going to happen before the next election – this is going to take two or three years.”
The Law Society, which represents solicitors, said courts are “crumbling, backlogs are spiralling, there aren’t enough judges and lawyers, and victims and defendants face disgraceful delays”.
President Lubna Shuja added: “Whether the royal commission on criminal justice has been paused or scrapped, it’s obvious that the criminal justice system is on its knees and crying out for investment after decades of underfunding.”
Ministers have told parliament the government remained committed to the policy on at least nine occasions since it was announced.
In response to questions in the House of Lords the following July, a government minister said it would take several months to draw up the royal commission’s scope and it would then run for up to a year and a half.
The process requires a terms of reference to be drafted before the King is asked to approve the commission, which can only then be formally established by royal warrant.
In May, crossbench peer Lord Ramsbotham called for the government to apologise to the Queen for “asking her to make an announcement which they had no intention of implementing”, with her December 2019 speech, which said: “My ministers will establish a royal commission to review and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the criminal justice process.”
He said the commission was “obviously not going to happen” and that the team formed inside the Ministry of Justice has been broken up.
The Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers across England and Wales, called the pause a “blow to policing”.
Chair Steve Hartshorn added: “Many reports show what needs to be done not only in policing but in the wider criminal justice system and they all ultimately point to a longer-term, sustainable funding mechanism that will allow for both investment and savings.”
The Howard League for Penal Reform said the commission could have been an opportunity to “carefully rethink” the current system as prison overcrowding worsens.
”Some of the answers that such an inquiry might provide are already staring us in the face – not least the obvious need to reduce the prison population and to invest into an underfunded criminal justice system that is on its last legs,” said director of campaigns Andrew Neilson.
“Why are ministers proceeding with plans to build more prisons when there are insufficient staff to run the ones we already have and insufficient courts to process the people already in the system?”
The government said the “pause” on the royal commission had been necessary during the pandemic and pointed to work including the Victims’ Bill and Rape Action Plan as examples of reform.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “We continue to keep issues in the justice system under review and are now focused on delivering major reforms to boost the rights of victims, overhaul the response to rape, drive down the pandemic-induced backlog and help offenders turn their backs on crime to better protect the public.”
