Manchester residents denied timely justice as court delays reach their worst levels in nearly a decade

News

New analysis reveals a prolonged surge in the time it takes to process criminal cases in Greater Manchester*, especially since the pandemic. The Law Society of England and Wales urges the UK government to implement a broad package of measures and provide sustained investment in justice to repair this vital public service that we all rely on**.

From April to June 2025, the average time from offence to case completion in the criminal courts reached 696 days in Manchester, 11 days longer than the national average in England and Wales during the same period***. The delays affect every stage of the justice process and contribute to undue stress and uncertainty for those involved.

Since 2016, the annual average of days from offence to completion has risen from 629 to 673 in 2024, a 7% increase. There was a sharp dip in 2020 averaging 470 days, likely due to the pandemic. Since then, the time to completion has climbed every single year compared to 2020:

• 2021: 642 days
• 2022: 599 days
• 2023: 610 days
• 2024: 673 days

According to the most recent data, the first two quarters of 2025 (714 and 696 days) are the highest quarterly figures since 2016, suggesting that criminal court delays are currently at their worst level in nearly a decade.

But it is not just about delays. The state of the court infrastructure is an issue too. According to a solicitor at Manchester Magistrates’ Court in May 2025: “The buildings are literally crumbling. Manchester Magistrates’ Court has a rat infestation. The cells regularly become overwhelmed with vans queued up outside and defendants having to urinate in bags. The whole criminal court estate is not fit for purpose****.”

Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, is visiting Manchester on 11 March to discuss the findings and hear directly from solicitors about the challenges and opportunities facing the profession today.

He said: “Delays of nearly two years are leaving communities in limbo and undermining confidence in the justice system, which is a vital public service.

“With 57% of the North West’s solicitors based in Manchester, local legal communities play a critical role in keeping the system moving. However, they cannot do that with chronic under-investment in the courts and recent government proposals to erode the right to a jury trial will not solve the backlogs.

“According to a recent Law Society report, solicitors rated the physical court conditions at Manchester Magistrates’ Court and Manchester Crown Square the equal lowest and third lowest respectively in England and Wales.

“The government must prioritise urgent investment in our courts now, to ensure we can all continue to benefit from access to justice across Greater Manchester and the rest of the country.”

Notes to editors

* Timeliness measures reported here are mean average days across all closed cases heard in the magistrates and Crown Courts, from offence to completion. Timeliness at the magistrates’ courts measures the time from an offence being committed through key stages of the criminal justice system including charge or laying of the information, first listing and the subsequent completion of a defendant’s case at the magistrates’ court. End-to-end timeliness at the Crown Court measures the time from an offence being committed through key stages of the criminal justice system including charge, passage through the magistrates’ courts and subsequent completion of a defendant’s case. The estimates are created by linking magistrates’ courts and Crown Court data outputs to create an ‘end-to-end’ defendant journey across key stages of the criminal justice system. More information can be found here: Criminal court statistics quarterly: July to September 2025 - GOV.UK

**Read the Law Society’s response to Brian Leveson’s independent review of the criminal courts.

***The Law of England and Wales carried out new analysis of publicly available data that can be found in the criminal court statistics quarterly and the CJS Dashboard. Further data, including median figures, can also be found here. The 696 days from offence to completion included an overall duration of 291 days for cases in the Crown Courts and 29 days in the Magistrates’ Court.

****Read our 2025 state of the courts report.

The Law Society president Mark Evans is meeting with various members, stakeholders and aspiring solicitors in Manchester on 11 March 2026. If you would like to arrange an interview, please get in touch.