By Ben Kerrigan-
Dominic Raab has told striking barristers to stop holding justice to ransom and accept the increased pay offered by his department
Hundreds of barristers are preparing to commence full-blown strike action from 5 September after an overwhelming majority of Criminal Bar Association members voted in favour of escalating action over shortages of legal aid funding.
Writing in the Daily Mail today, Raab accused the CBA of ‘badly letting victims down’. He said: ‘Leaders of the CBA are now holding justice to ransom – threatening the progress we’ve achieved, causing untold anguish for victims, and preventing the innocent from clearing their names.
‘I’m sure Daily Mail readers share my frustration. The Crown court backlog driven up by the pandemic, but which had fallen as a direct result of action we’ve taken, is now starting to creep back up – as a result of the CBA’s decisions. Ramping up strike action now is needless and indefensible, especially after we confirmed a pay boost that will put an extra £7,000 in the average criminal barrister’s pockets.’
The continuous strike effectively begins next week because the action is ongoing.
Friday will be the last working day for barristers before they walk out again on Tuesday August 30
The CBA, which is demanding a 25% fee uplift to prevent further attrition insists that barristers will not see the benefit of any fee increase as the government’s fee increase will only apply to new cases.
Striking barristers
The Crown court backlog which stood at 58,540 according to figures contained in a highly critical National Audit increased increased 23% in the year leading up to the pandemic, from 33,290 on 31 March 2019 to 41,045 on 31 March 2020. It increased a further 48% since the onset of the pandemic, to 60,692 cases on 30 June 2021.
Raab said his message to the CBA was simple. ‘We are increasing your pay. Now your actions are only harming victims, increasing the court backlog, and hampering our efforts to make our streets safer. The criminal justice system deserves better. Victims deserve better. So, to those striking, I say – do right by them and please return to work.’
The Victims’ Commissioner for London, Claire Waxman, responded to Mr Raab’s comments by blaming his “inaction” for the ongoing dispute, warning that justice will “grind to a complete standstill” and thousands of victims would be affected by the strike.
She said on Twitter: “The only ones responsible for holding ‘justice to ransom’ are those who have failed to fund a functioning justice system. Yes, it is bringing ‘heartbreak to victims’ but this falls on Dominic Raab and the Government, not the Criminal Bar Association. Time for honesty and action.”
In another post she also slammed Mr Raab , saying that he had “refused to meet with the CBA and stop this escalating justice crisis. His inaction is causing serious harm to all victims of crime in this country”.
Mr Raab is on leave with his family in Surrey until Thursday and has not met the CBA since members embarked on industrial action in April, but junior ministers have met the group regularly.
The CBA has also accused the Minister of Justice of exhibiting an underlying level of dishonesty in his comments, by not giving full details of what his claim of increased ay truly means.
A CBA spokesperson said in a statement to this publication: ‘It is frankly an insult to victims for a secretary of state to talk about delays to victims of crime brought about by our action for justice when it has been this government’s refusal to pay properly for criminal barristers to stay in their job to defend, prosecute and provide the part-time judges the public expects, and the government relies on, to clear rising and record delays and case backlogs.
‘These delays are all of government’s own making, long before we took action to redress the people shortfalls to make the system work.
‘To add further insult to injury for victims of crime, the secretary of state dares to proclaim this month that “our action on rape is working” when all the evidence from his own Ministry of Justice shows precisely the opposite with record and growing backlogs in sexual offence trials across England and Wales right up to the end of March 2022, before the criminal bar took any action.’