CBA Chair’s Message – 02.09.24
Mary Prior KC
The 2,400 criminal barristers who remain within the criminal justice system provide an essential public service. These skilled and talented barristers prosecute and defend the most serious crimes across England and Wales. We have lost 47% of practitioners with 8-12 years experience and the reduction in our numbers will continue without substantial and long-term investment into the criminal barristers who are the engine room of the criminal justice system. Those that remain are working flat out to try to make a difference. Despite that, there were 1,436 criminal cases in 2023 in which could not go ahead on the day that they were due to start because there was no prosecution or no defence advocate or sometimes both. Without significant input into retention and recruitment, this will only get worse.
After two decades of chronic cuts to the whole of the criminal justice system from the police right through to the prisons, the new Government has to act. The CBA respects and applauds the decision of the new Government to appoint an Attorney-General, a Lord Chancellor and a Secretary of State for Justice who are highly able legal professionals. We look forward to working with them and with Heidi Alexander MP, the Minister of State in the Ministry of Justice, and we appreciate her public acknowledgement of our work during the recent riots. We stand ready to work collaboratively with all agencies to repair our vandalised and dysfunctional criminal justice system. This will not be a short process but in good time, our collective effort can return our justice system to the status of the finest in the world.
Whether the flight from the Criminal Bar is tempered or reversed will depend on whether the Government implements the recommendations of the Independent Review Bodies set up by the previous government to consider Review into Criminal Legal Aid published in 2021. We cooperated with and waited patiently for the final report of the Bellamy Report. The previous administration ignored many of its independent conclusions including those around renumeration and the structural reform of fees for far too long to everyone’s cost. The recommendations of the Criminal Legal Aid Advisory Board, skilfully led by HHJ Deborah Taylor, are due shortly. We have demonstrated our respect for the criminal justice system by working tirelessly to try to reduce the backlog in the Crown Courts and by collaborating with Lord Justice Edis in his efforts in 2024 to conclude all rape cases which had been waiting for trial for over two years from first hearing in the Crown Court.
Criminal Barristers respect the Criminal Justice System and the rule of law. We act according to the law. We are independent and it is that independence which is at the heart of the work that we do. When barristers prosecute, giving a voice to the vulnerable, we must not strive for a conviction at any cost, but must prosecute fairly and impartially. When barristers defend, we must test and probe the evidence, and do so fearlessly, regardless of gravity of the crime or the understandable public outrage at it. Criminal Barristers present the evidence that we are provided with and, whatever the result, the public can have confidence that that evidence was explored fully, rigorously tested and where there has been a conviction, that it follows a fair trial, giving closure to victims and witnesses alike and where there has been a not guilty verdict, that the verdict was right in fact and law. In order to make best use of every precious hour of Court time, our criminal barristers have worked long into the night and often most of the weekend. This comes at a cost to our social and family lives, our health and our wellbeing. We have to consider the wellbeing of all the barristers from pupils, juniors, senior juniors and Silks of the Criminal Bar of England and Wales. The CBA has a Wellbeing Protocol and we urge all our members to follow it where they can. Whether we can persuade them to remain and whether we can recruit and retain the next generation depends on what happens this year and in the years that follow it.
We respect and appreciate the independence and skill of the Judiciary. Judges, Barristers, Criminal Solicitors and Paralegals, the Crown Prosecution Service, Court staff, Witness Service, Probation Service, Intermediaries, Interpreters, Court Security and Prison Staff all work together to ensure that the vulnerable can be heard and trials are fair and properly conducted. But we can only do so at the pace that the long term lack of financial investment into the system permits.
Respect works both ways. There has been a growing lack of respect towards criminal barristers and an assumption from the previous Government, Court administrators and the civil service that this garden of public service never needs watering or tending. We want our profession to continue but there is a price to pay. When praise was rightly being handed out to the Police, the Judiciary and to the CPS for their managing of the recent public order offences within the criminal justice system, little or no mention was made of the Barristers or Solicitors with Higher Rights of Audience who conducted the prosecutions and defences of those cases in court.
Being Chair of the Criminal Bar Association is a matter of public service. It is my honour and privilege to work with the Vice Chair, Riel Karmy-Jones KC, our Treasurer, James Gray, our Secretary, James Oliveira-Agnew and our Assistant Secretary Chloe Ashley. The entire CBA relies on the brilliance of our Administrator, Aaron Dolan, and our talented Director of Communications, James Rossiter. We are assisted by our excellent committees who work tirelessly for us all. Together, we will all be working for you, representing the interests of the Criminal Bar. We will all do our best to ensure that your dedication and talent is respected.
Tana Adkin KC
The CBA would like to express its admiration and sincere thanks for the tireless work undertaken by Tana over many years on behalf of us all and especially for her work as Vice Chair and Chair over the last two years. Tana has been a huge supporter of the criminal bar, was instrumental in negotiating with the MOJ and has been determined to continue to try to hold the MOJ to account to ensure that the entirety of the agreement is honoured. She stood on the steps of many Crown Courts during the action to support us all. Tana is courageous and determined. She has given us her everything. Throughout her term Tana continued to prosecute and defend across the country. Tana can now focus entirely on her career, but in her usual selfless way, has offered to develop a new project for the CBA in the New Year.
The Vice Chair of the CBA
We are delighted that Riel Karmy-Jones of Red Lion Chambers has become the Vice Chair. Riel prosecutes and defends murder, complex and serious organised crime, human trafficking, sexual offences and modern slavery cases. She is a contributing author to a number of legal texts. She was the Head of our RASSO group until her appointment as Vice Chair.
and finally, News from Guildford Crown Court
Guildford Crown Court’s works are progressing well and on schedule, so the Crown Court building will reopen on Monday 2nd September (2024!) with courts 3 & 4 operational. Courts 1 & 2 will be worked on out of court hours. Guildford look forward to welcoming everyone back. The car park will re-open for the use of advocates. Please check the list carefully for your court venue; they still have people attending at the wrong building (and in the wrong town..), despite the list saying where the case is listed. They will continue to use Chichester Crown Court until at least March 2025 and possibly other court venues as well.
Yours,
Mary
Mary Prior KC
CBA Chair