Artificial intelligence could also be utilized in courts as victims wait years for justice

Artificial intelligence may be introduced in courts to help make them more productive, the Justice Secretary has suggested.

Shabana Mahmood said she is “very interested” in the role of tech as she set out changes to sentencing to tackle the courts backlog. The Labour minister announced plans in the Commons to allow magistrates to issue prison sentences for up to a year – a doubling of their current powers.

The move will save approximately 2,000 days in the Crown Court, which deals with the most serious cases, and will mean victims who are waiting sometimes years for their trials to go to court will get the justice they deserve more swiftly. It will also help the government drive down the record remand population – those who are in prison while they await their trial – and relieve pressure on prison capacity which was left at the brink of collapse. The change will come into effect from November 18.

The courts backlog shot up during the pandemic when the justice system near ground to a halt. Nearly 70,000 cases were waiting to be heard in the Crown Court according to official stats published this Spring.

Ms Mahmood said the backlog and years-long waits for cases to be heard in court has had a “profound” impact on victims of crime. “For some, justice delayed is, as the old saying goes, justice denied as victims choose to withdraw from the justice process altogether rather than face the pain of a protracted legal battle,” she added.

Asked about tech as a solution to the backlog, Ms Mahmood said: “I’m very interested in the role that AI and other technology and digital solutions can play in increasing efficiency and productivity with the crown court system and within the courts system more broadly. That is something that is subject to discussions in relation to the Budget and spending review. I hope to update the House further in due course.”

AI is already used to automate decision-making processes or analyse legal data in some places around the world. An inquiry by the Lords’ Justice and Home Affairs Committee in 2022 found algorithms or machine-learning technology could bring benefits to the criminal justice system in England and Wales, including helping to “discover crimes, deter criminal behaviour, and to rehabilitate or punish offenders”. But it also warned that a “lack of minimum standards, transparency, evaluation and training” in AI could compromise the public’s human rights and civil liberties.

Tom Franklin, chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association which has campaigned for the change to sentencing, described it as a “vital means of ensuring speedier justice for victims”. But he warned the shift is “not problem-free” as he called for long-term investment in the criminal justice system. It comes as Ms Mahmood is said to have written to Keir Starmer expressing alarm over possible departmental cuts in the Budget.