An acute shortage of judges is causing long delays in bringing criminal trials to court, putting more pressure on overcrowded prisons and delaying justice for victims of crime.

The Times has learnt that Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, received a list of approved candidates to fill the growing number of vacancies for Crown Court judges some weeks ago But Mr Straw has not indicated how many appointments he will make nor when he will announce them.

Retired judges are being pressed into service, and part-time recorders are being repeatedly asked to serve for longer periods. Such ad hoc measures save money because the Government does not have to pay holiday allowance or pension contributions for retired or part-time judges.

As the criminal justice system struggles to cope, serious cases are being put back until 2008 and overcrowded remand prisons are holding record numbers of inmates.

Senior members of the judiciary have called for urgent talks with Mr Straw to resolve the crisis. Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, the Lord Chief Justice, told judges at their recent annual dinner that “judicial appointments can be made very much more swiftly and efficiently”.

He said that he had raised the issue with Mr Straw and called for urgent remedial action.

Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, another senior judge, has also spoken of “severe problems” created by the judicial shortages, budget cuts and crumbling courthouses.

Relations between the new Justice Department and the judiciary are already poor and will not be helped by the widespread belief that much-needed judicial appointments are being delayed in order to save money.

There are at least 47 vacancies for circuit judges across England and Wales, with more than 30 of those in the South East Circuit where pressure on court space and time is most intense.

The courts in and around London already face difficulties finding courtrooms and judges to conduct the growing caseload of terrorist trials which routinely start later than scheduled and overrun by months.

The management of the fertiliser bomb plot trial, which was presided over by a judge brought out of retirement, has been particularly criticised after lasting a year.

A main cause of the delays in appointing judges has been the bungled handling of the process by the new Judicial Appointments Commission.

Established in April 2006 to make the selection of judges more merito-cratic and representative, it has yet to complete the process of appointing a significant batch of circuit judges. It advertised for 32 circuit judges last year – 24 in the South East – with applications to be submitted by September. But in February this year the JAC had to write to candidates apologising for mishandling their applications by disregarding their references without consideration. The posts have still not been filled and the number of vacancies has continued to grow.

Writing in The Circuiteer, a magazine for lawyers on the South East Circuit, Mr Justice Calvert-Smith said that judges were facing mounting problems. “We are at least 35 judges short on this circuit,” he wrote. “The budget cuts and the fact that the vast majority of our expenditure is on salaries have meant that many staff are not replaced when they leave.

“Other results have been that in spite of all being agreed as to the need to modernise and/or extend courts around the circuit, the actual work has been delayed.”

Demands have also been made on judicial manpower by the current sentencing regime which requires increasing numbers of judges to review reports from the Parole Board.

The indeterminate sentence of “imprisonment for public protection”, which has to be imposed for 153 offences, is fuelling prison numbers with 3000 prisoners now serving the sentence, a number the Home Office preicts to reach 25,000 by 2012. Sir Igor Judge, Deputy Lord Chief Justice, recently told the Constitutional Affairs Committee of MPs that judges had to review the Parole Board reports on such prisoners and to deal with that increase woud need an extra 100 judges. “Where will they come from?” he asked MPs.

Sally O’Neill, QC, vice-chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said that the hiatus in appointing judges was having a damaging effect. “It is necessary to keep the appointment system going to make sure younger people are coming through and promote the aim of having greater diversity in the judiciary,” she said.

The Ministry of Justice could not say what measures were being considered to speed up judicial appointments but said it expected vacancies to be filled “very shortly”.

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