§ 40. Mr. Liptonasked the Attorney-General why the average waiting time for defendants at the Central Criminal Court is over 18 weeks in custody and over 24 weeks on bail.
§ The Attorney-GeneralThe main reason for the present backlog is the increase in the work of the Crown Court, which rose by nearly one-third between 1972 and 1975. There was an increase of about 6 per cent. in the number of cases committed for trial in London during 1976. The Central Criminal Court deals with an unusually high proportion of heavy and complex cases, and these take, on average, twice as long to try as do cases heard elsewhere.