About Rwanda, Courts and a chin related injury!

 

I am wondering if I can pursue a personal injury claim against the Prime Minister. This is for injuries suffered by my chin as it hit the floor this morning during his excruciating speech about Rwanda.

 Enough has been said about the scheme itself. What caused my facial injury was this –

‘To deal with any legal cases quickly and decisively, the judiciary have made available 25 courtrooms and identified 150 judges who could provide over 5,000 sitting days.’

Are we allowed to ask which member of the judiciary has achieved this miracle?

The court system in this country is in chaos. In April 2023 the Law Society reported –

‘The continuing lack of progress to reduce the backlog makes it unlikely the government will achieve its target of cutting the number of cases waiting to come to court to 53,000 by March 2025’

Government set to miss target to reduce courts backlog | The Law Society

Some victims of crime wait many years for their case to come to trial. A few weeks ago, the Senior Presiding judge, Lord Justice Edis said that there were 3355 rape cases awaiting trial and that 6% of these cases were ‘very old’.

He described this as –

"an unacceptable state of affairs from the point of view of the complainants, the witnesses, the defendants, and justice generally",

Nearly 200 'very old' rape case trials could begin by end of July after years of delays | UK News | Sky News

We can add to this those caught up in other area of criminal work. It is a shambles. 

And it is not a new problem. As long ago as 2019 I wrote about the number of courts that were sitting empty die to a lack of resources –

Steve Cornforth Blog: Justice on the verge of collapse - (let's pile some more on top) (thestevecornforthblog.blogspot.com)

And of course there are the family and civil courts!

And then today we hear that we suddenly have 5000 sitting days available – not to give closure to the victims but to enable the beleaguered Prime Minister to get some planes off the ground. Where have they come from? Where they there all time warming the bench like a surplus Man City player? Or did the magic money tree come up with the goods?

Enough really is enough.

We have a Lord Chancellor – Alex Chalk MP. He has sworn an oath as follows –

“I, , do swear that in the office of Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain. I will respect the rule of law, defend the independence of the judiciary and discharge my duty to ensure the provision of resources for the efficient and effective support of the courts for which I am responsible. So help me God.”

It is not a duty to secure the political aims of a politician. If extra funds are available to secure what many see a gimmick, then surely funds can be made available to help victims of crime.