Tackling Delay is a challenge for the Criminal Justice System

Date published: 6 October 2025

Justice Minister Naomi Long is committed to reducing delays in the Criminal Justice System despite the difficulties hindering progress.

Delay in criminal cases is one of the biggest challenges facing the justice system and is a key priority for the Justice Minister.

The Minister said: 

“Delay can impact negatively on those who come into contact with the criminal justice system as well as the confidence of the wider community.  This is a huge issue for victims and witnesses as well as for the accused and all the families involved.

“If we are to truly speed up justice, we need to reduce avoidable delay, reduce demand on the system, free up capacity and look at more proportionate and effective responses to offending behaviours.  This is what the speeding up justice programme is leading on, taking a whole system approach.”

Delays in bringing cases to court, contribute to pressures elsewhere in the system.  This includes long case processing times which can result in individuals spending longer on remand.

The Minister said: 

“Prisons are under pressure like never before.  Our prison population is at an all-time high with 41.1% of prisoners on remand.  Time spent on remand can result in individuals being released with time served and no rehabilitation work completed.  We must break this cycle.

“The judiciary need viable alternatives to custody and that is why I have sought views on a bail support scheme.  This scheme will seek to support women in the community while they await trial and if successful, would be rolled out wider.   

“Other options I am considering are out of court disposals.  This is not about going soft on criminals.  It is not about ‘giving criminals a slap on the wrist’.  It is about strengthening the tools already available to the PSNI and PPS.  It is about diverting some cases away from a busy court system.  It is about concentrating our limited resources on bringing the most serious offences before the courts.”

Continuing, the Minister highlighted the socioeconomic factors that are increasingly impacting on offending.  She said:

“Poverty, social deprivation, mental health issues, substance misuse and homelessness are having a huge impact on society and on the justice system.  These issues create an environment which can disproportionately increase the likelihood of offending.  If these issues are not addressed upstream, the consequences are felt downstream within the justice system.  Justice alone will not fix this.  We need a whole government approach to tackle these issues, and I am absolutely up for that conversation.”

Driving forward the Speeding up Justice programme and developing a cross-governmental strategy to reduce offending and reoffending are targets and actions within the Programme for Government 2024-2027.

In conclusion, the Minister said: 

“If we are committed to improving the life chances and life choices of our people then we must reevaluate our approach and refocus our energies and resources.  We must unclog our justice system, beginning with the root causes.  Only then can we truly reform and modernise to deliver a justice system which is sustainable long-term.”