§ Mr. Frank Fieldasked the Attorney-General whether the Lord Chancellor is satisfied that the morale of staff in the Crown court service is not being adversely affected by the heavy increase in civil and criminal cases and the substantial backlog of taxation and payments to the legal profession.
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI understand that the morale of staff in the Crown court is generally excellent. The staff have displayed great dedication in dealing with the increased case load, and, in the first five months of 1983, 653W the number of cases disposed of exceeded the number received by 6 per cent. Apart from the general effect of the volume of work, I am not aware of any evidence that any delay in payments to the legal profession has had any specific effect on the morale of court staff.