Leveson Review: Urgent action needed to address courts crisis

Today (9th July 2025) the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts: Part I has been published. Led by Sir Brian Leveson, the review outlines major structural reforms aimed at addressing delays and inefficiencies in the Crown Court.

Echoing concerns repeatedly raised by specialist VAWG organisations, the review highlights the significant number of sexual offence cases received by the Crown Court, which has increased by 108% in 6 years, from 5,000 in 2018 to over 10,400 in 2024. It also recognises the significant increase in time that cases are taking at Crown Court – with an average of 333 days between a case arriving at Crown Court and completion (an increase of 65% from 2019).

The review’s recommendations

We welcome the review’s wide-reaching recommendations to address the crisis in the Crown Courts that has not only left rape survivors without access to justice but caused them considerable harm. Sexual violence cases constitute a significant part of the Crown Courts backlog, and extended delays to victims’ cases is having an enormously damaging impact on their wellbeing.

One of the key recommendations is the increased use of Out-of-Court Resolutions, for example Cautions and Conditional Cautions, to divert more cases away from the courts. We are concerned about what this would mean in cases of domestic abuse and other forms of VAWG, and what safeguards will be put in place to ensure that they are applied appropriately and do not result in increased risk to victims.

Other recommendations include:

• Removal of the right to elect trial in cases where the maximum sentence is two years’ imprisonment with reclassification of some offences to ‘summary only’
• New division of the Crown Court with two magistrates and a judge to handle less serious offences
• Maximum sentence reduction increased to 40% for guilty pleas at first opportunity, encouraging quicker case resolution
• Judge-alone trials introduced either by election on the part of the defendant or for the most complex cases

Lack of focus on improving victims’ experiences of the justice system

Overall, the review lacks focus on what is needed to make the system operate better for rape victims, beyond improving system efficiency and case throughput. We call on the government to focus on measures to transform safety, wellbeing, and justice outcomes for survivors going through the justice process.

‘Victim bad character’ evidence is one of numerous ways victim-blaming manifests throughout the justice process, with institutional cultures wrongly investigating the victim’s perceived credibility rather than investigating the suspect’s actions. With Centre for Women’s Justice, Imkaan, Rape Crisis England & Wales and Right of Women, we are campaigning for an end to so-called ‘bad character’ evidence which sees defence lawyers wrongly using survivors’ past reports of abuse against them in order to discredit their account.

Blind spots when it comes to intersectional experiences risk exacerbating existing inequalities and eroding any remaining trust in the justice system for marginalised women and girls. It is vital that work is urgently carried out to understand who does and does not access justice, and why, so that gaps can be addressed.

We urge the government to respond to these recommendations without delay, but to also ensure transformative change in the interim so that survivors currently going through the justice system aren’t left behind.

Andrea Simon, Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), said:

“While we welcome this review amplifying our concerns about the justice system’s response to violence against women and girls, we are concerned that there has not been due consideration of victims and survivors’ needs.

While a focus on structural change is needed, transforming the justice system means ensuring survivors’ experiences are centred, and must result in a sense of justice being achieved. Reducing the number of cases languishing in crown courts will support this, but there is much more to be done.

One clear way the government can transform sexual violence survivors’ experiences of the justice system is to put an end to ‘victim bad character’ evidence which wrongly uses survivors’ past reports of abuse against them in order to discredit their account. With the Victims and Courts Bill, the government has an opportunity to stop this harmful legal practice.” 

ENDS

Media contact

Sinead Geoghegan, Head of Communications, media@evaw.org.uk, 07960 744 502