Dorset criminal court backlog increases over a decade

News

New analysis by the Law Society of England and Wales exposed increasing pressures on the local justice system, which needs urgent investment by the UK government to ensure it works better for all of us.

Open cases in Bournemouth Crown Court in Dorset rose sharply over 10 years. According to recent data, the number of open cases jumped from 410 in quarter four of 2016 to 718 in the same period of 2025*.

As the backlog grows, so do the delays in processing criminal court cases. Across Dorset, the average time it took to conclude a case in 2016 was 530 days.

According to our analysis, in the second quarter of 2025, it was 619 days affecting all communities across the region**.

The government must implement a broad package of measures and provide sustained investment in the justice system to repair this vital public service that we all rely on.

These delays affect every stage of the justice process and contribute to undue stress and uncertainty for those involved. Delays dropped in 2020, but continued to grow after the pandemic, with an average of 687 days in 2023 and 613 days in 2024.

Mark Evans, president of the Law Society, is visiting Bournemouth in Dorset today (24 April) to discuss the findings and hear directly from solicitors about the challenges and opportunities facing the profession today.

Mark said: “With the backlog in Bournemouth Crown Court rising sharply over the last decade and cases taking almost two years to conclude, victims, witnesses and defendants are left in a state of limbo***. These delays undermine confidence in the justice system, which is a crucial public service.

“Local legal communities and high street law firms play a vital role in keeping the system moving. But they cannot do this alone. The government must provide sustained investment in courts, including staff and legal advisors to ensure that there is proper access to justice for everyone.”

Notes to editors

*HM Courts and Tribunals Service, Criminal Court Statistics Analytical Tool (Receipts, Disposals and Open Cases), data to Q4 2025.

**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: October to December 2025 - GOV.UK.

The 619 days from offence to completion included an overall duration of 223 days for cases in the Crown Courts and 27 days in the magistrates’ court in Dorset.

***The Law Society 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 there.

• 2016: 530 days
• 2017: 516 days
• 2018: 446 days
• 2019: 589 days
• 2020: 437 days
• 2021: 596 days
• 2022: 645 days
• 2023: 687 days
• 2024: 613 days

Read our 2025 state of the courts report.

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

The Law Society president Mark Evans is meeting various members, stakeholders and aspiring solicitors in Bournemouth on 24 April. If you would like to arrange an interview, please get in touch.