Budget cuts come as criminal justice system in crisisposted at 1:34 p.m. Greenwich Mean Time on October 30

1:34 p.m. GMT October 30

Sima Kotecha
Senior Correspondent in the United Kingdom

Prisons are full and criminal courts face delays that force defendants, witnesses and victims to wait years to testify. The criminal justice system is in crisis.

A 2% cut across all government departments would be bad news for the Justice Department, which faces many challenges.

He promised to clean up prisons and released thousands of offenders early to ease pressure on the system. But he is also committed to creating more prisons and creating fourteen thousand additional new places.

Those who work closely with the department wonder how it can stick to plans – and focus on rehabilitation and sentencing – when it has to make cuts?

As for the courts, lawyers tell us they feel disappointed by what they call a lack of commitment to reducing the tens of thousands of backlogs, with one saying “we We need more funding, not less.”