3. Courts and Sentencing

Conservative governments in the 2015–2020 period did fashion a more punitive and harsher court system but did not re-organise the system without attendant and significant issues, arising from reductions in court resources and the promotion of remote court working, and did not reduce expenditure without incurring a great deal of countermanding costs. Courts as a consequence were less, not more, able to provide a speedy and efficient processing of defendants.

The policies of the Conservative governments promoted the Coalition-inspired austerity-outsourcing-punishment (A-O-P) penal policy package further exacerbating the penal crisis for courts. Material scarcity was worsened by legal aid cuts, the over-ambitious courts estate programme and the extension of outsourcing to debt enforcement. The moral crisis was intensified by legal aid cuts and the pursuit of remote court working with insufficient regard to impact (both of which diminished procedural justice and court accountability) and the promotion of punitive sentencing which increased prison fetishisation and made conditions harsher for offenders. Little was done to reform penal policy-making. Overall the policies engaged detracted from justice.