This week I spoke in the House on the scandalous number of Crown Court cases that are outstanding due to court backlogs and underfunding. 23% of these have been outstanding for more than a year, up from 15% the September before.

Most alarmingly cases of rape and serious sexual offense have been disproportionately affected by these delays. This has left victims of these crimes, including women and girls, have been left waiting for years for justice that sometimes doesn’t arrive at the end of this cruelly protracted process.

The Conservatives cannot be trusted to deal with serious crime, despite their claims to the contrary, and the collapse in the courts has occurred on their watch. It isn’t good enough and it has to change.