There is a backlog of more than 100 open criminal cases at the Isle of Wight Crown Court, new Government figures have revealed.
The latest Ministry of Justice (MOJ) dataset reveals that the Island court – located on Quay Street in Newport – had 120 pending/open cases waiting to be heard as of September 2024.
Compare those numbers to pre-pandemic levels and they are significantly higher than the 70 open cases in the final quarter of 2019.
The figures would most likely be higher if some cases weren’t sent to mainland Crown Courts such as Portsmouth and Southampton.
Elsewhere in the country, places like Canterbury and Guilford – which have similar populations to the Isle of Wight – have 894 and 1,221 open cases respectively.
In the Magistrates’ Court, frustrations were expressed by the sitting bench on Tuesday when a case was listed for trial in October next year – more than 10 months from now and more than 2 years after the minor offence occurred.
More money wasted on having prisoners inside waiting for trial dates.