Society of Labour Lawyers releases “powerfully depressing” charity calendar

The Society of Labour Lawyers has released a 2022 charity calendar today that explores the “crumbling” criminal justice system in a bid to raise money for legal charities.

The calendar, being sold for £8 each by the group affiliated to the Labour Party, features photographs of dilapidated courtrooms to highlight government underinvestment in Britain’s courts.

Proceeds will go to charities including JUSTICE and The Howard League for Penal Reform. Members of the public are being encouraged by the society to buy calendars and send them to their MPs.

Labour’s shadow courts minister Holly Lynch described the calendar as “powerfully depressing”, noting that in her constituency “Halifax had its two courts closed in 2016 with empty promises that technology would bridge the gap”.

“As highlighted by this calendar, of those courts that remain, many are in an appalling state of disrepair. It is important that the public know how close to breaking point the system really is,” the Labour frontbencher said.

Society of Labour Lawyers chair Catherine Atkinson explained that the group has published the calendar “to highlight how dilapidated and decrepit the Courts have been allowed to become”.

“The backlog facing the criminal justice system was enormous even before Covid,” Atkinson said. “If and when cases finally get to court, often after years of delay, they are held in crumbling buildings where basic services don’t work.”

On Wednesday, Atkinson and her colleague Natasha Lloyd-Owen, who chairs the society’s crime group, presented copies of the calendar to No 10 and the Ministry of Justice, as well as providing copies to members of the cabinet and shadow cabinet.

Lloyd-Owen said lawyers like her “have tried telling the government how much more investment is needed, but it has now reached a stage where we have to show them”. She added: “We often hear witnesses and jurors say that they are shocked about the physical state of the criminal courts.

“This calendar aims to give the wider public a picture of the broken system because, without proper investment now, there will be more ceilings falling in, more flooded courtrooms, more delays and, ultimately, less justice.”

In October last year, it was reported that there were more than 58,000 outstanding Crown Court cases and more than 386,000 in the magistrate’s court. In September, The Law Society found that over half the courts across England and Wales were closed between 2010 and 2019.

Labour has previously called on the government to introduce “wartime juries” to clear the backlog of criminal cases by temporarily switching to juries of seven instead of 12.

The party argued that reducing the size of juries would increase the number able to hold jury trials while reducing the risk of jurors contracting Covid. Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett said he would support the move to reduce the number of jurors.