Ipswich Crown Court cases being transferred to Cambridge as MP Jack Abbott raises issue in Parliament

Court cases in Ipswich are being transferred to Cambridge in a bid to reduce backlogs, it has been revealed.

Jack Abbott, MP for Ipswich, raised the ongoing problems at Ipswich Crown Court in Parliament yesterday.

He asked Heidi Alexander, minister of state for courts and legal services, what steps were being taken to reduce the backlog at Ipswich Crown Court.

Last year, there were more than 1,000 outstanding cases at the court and the average case took 249 days to progress, Mr Abbott said, while 144 took two years or more to resolve.

Ms Alexander responded that the Government was fully committed to ‘bearing down on the crown court caseload’ and that steps were being taken.

This includes sending cases heard at Ipswich Crown Court to Cambridge Crown Court for hearings.

She said, nationally, crown court sitting days had increased by 500 to 106,500.

In response, Mr Abbott said: “Earlier this year it was reported that over 1,000 cases at Ipswich Crown Court were outstanding, with it taking on average more than eight months to be dealt with. Dozens upon dozens of cases had also been left unresolved for two years or more.”

He said he was grateful the Government was working to deal with the issue.

“It means justice will be delivered for people in Ipswich and Suffolk as we look to fix our broken criminal justice system,” he added.