Close to 10,000 errors by courts service and agency staff over three years led to the potentially “dire” consequences of inmates being wrongly kept behind bars and the public potentially at risk from unmanaged offenders, a high level official report has revealed.
The thousands of adjournments, sentences and public protection notices handed down by judges were either wrongly filed and needed amended or were deleted from the system, the report into the running of the criminal courts found.
While this represents only a tiny percentage of the total number over the three years from 2020-2023, mistakes “can have dire consequences”, Jacqui Durkin, the Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice said following the first report into the effectiveness of the administration of the criminal courts.
Significant improvement is needed as Ms Durkin revealed that between 2020 and 2023, 4.810 orders required amendment and 4,563 were deleted “largely due to human error”. More than 50% were only discovered after being flagged by sources outside the NI Courts and Tribunal Service (NICTS).
“While these figures represented less than 0.5% of the total orders issued each year, the impact of mistakes can incur additional costs, delay payments, mean someone is held in custody longer than they should be, or could compromise the effective management of risk presented by an offender to protect public safety,” Ms Durkin warned.
She added: “NICTS staff are involved in the administration of more than one million results across the criminal courts each year that can range from an adjournment to prison sentences and public protection orders. Getting this right is essential because getting it wrong can have dire consequences.”
The report recommends the courts service reviews its processes around data change requests to amend or delete court orders.
Ms Durkin also highlighted the strain on staffing within the courts service, including the inability to recruit staff, particularly court clerks.
In October 2023 the overall workforce vacancy rate was approximately 15%, leaving the service heavily reliant on agency workers, During that month, 42% of administrative staff in the north east region, which includes Belfast, were supplied by agencies.
“This inspection recognises that NICTS staff have worked to provide support to all crown, magistrates’ and youth courts across Northern Ireland despite the business challenges it has faced,” Ms Durkin said.
“During 2022-23 their efforts meant that 15% more crown court cases and 5% more magistrates’ court cases were processed than the number of cases they received.”
On average over the last 10 years, 41,896 criminal cases were received by the courts annually, with 41,191 cases disposed of over the same 12 month period. The courts service was contacted for comment.