A new report has found that a lack of a collectively agreed vision between Stormont’s Department of Justice and key organisations is a barrier for delivering change in the north’s criminal justice system.
The Criminal Justice Inspection NI report explores how the Department of Justice (DoJ) works with the bodies to “secure transformation and improvement” for those within the system.
Inspectors found there had been limited improvement in the performance of the criminal justice system, the experience of victims, witnesses and defendants, or those working within it, despite numerous strategies implemented since justice was devolved to Stormont in 2010.
The report identifies that criminal cases continue to take too long end-to-end, with 90% of all cases completed in 769 days in 2022-23 compared to 527 days in 2018-19.
Chief Inspector of Criminal Justice Jacqui Durkin, said: “Transforming the criminal justice system in Northern Ireland is easy to identify as a priority and aspiration but much harder to deliver.
“Over the last two decades our criminal justice system has seen investment in and delivered many service and technology enabled improvements, however it remains a complex network where the ‘wicked problems’ persist, and outcomes are fairly static.”
Ms Durkin said transformation “has been too readily used as a badge for too many service or system changes, that included organisations doing solo runs because they were affordable, without meaningfully collaborating with others on their impact”.
She said measures that may have delivered efficiency for one organisation could create pressure elsewhere, “making it imperative that a true partnership and system-wide approach to transformation and future investment is developed”.
Inspectors found the majority of transformation, service improvement programmes and project bodies were being led by the same relatively small pool of senior leaders and decision makers.
The Criminal Justice Board has already agreed five priorities to speed up justice in Northern Ireland.
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“I have recommended that in the next six months, the DoJ should agree with the key criminal justice organisations represented on the Criminal Justice Board, a shared future vision and strategic priorities to deliver transformational change and innovation across the criminal justice system,” Ms Durkin said.
“This should be clearly communicated and reflected in each organisation’s Corporate and Business Plans.”
She added: “If there ever was a time for more cohesion and shared priorities it is now. We all know and feel the impact of budget pressures, so all the more reason to make sure priorities are known and shared across the criminal justice system and beyond it.
“Transformational change needs transformational leaders who have the courage and capacity to take risks and deliver the improvements needed to our criminal justice system that the public expects, and service users deserve.”
