Courts at tipping point as staff cuts delay criminal trials

Severe staff cuts and rising workloads have led to “increasing and unacceptable delays” in the hearing of serious criminal trials and domestic violence applications, the chief executive of the Courts Service has conceded.

Brendan Ryan warned that the service had reached a “tipping point”, with court staff in numerous offices placed under “considerable and unsustainable pressure”.

He welcomed the 1.6% increase in the Courts Service’s budget for 2016, which will allow for 30 additional staff. But the recruitment is against the background of a 16% cut in the service’s workforce, from 1,080 in 2009 to 900 in 2014, a loss of 180 staff.