Senior Leeds barrister calls for creation of 'Nightingale Courts' to tackle huge backlog of criminal cases caused by coronavirus lockdown.

Richard Wright QC says the justice system should "take a leaf out of the NHS' book" to boost capacity and ensure jury trials can return safely.

Trials were halted across the UK in March due to the virus and the number of other cases being dealt with by the courts have drastically reduced.

Mr Wright, leader of the North Eastern Circuit, told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "This crisis demands effort and initiative on a scale we have never seen before.

"If the court estate is unsuitable then we should look at once to utilise empty buildings, many in public ownership, that could be easily adapted for conducting socially distanced hearings.

"The nation celebrated when the NHS, with the help of the army, built Nightingale hospitals in days, and Government should not be deterred from taking the same approach to the courts in the short to medium term.

"In days 750,000 people had volunteered to assist the NHS, of whom a tiny number have in fact been called upon.

"Why are we reluctant to harness that collective national effort and deploy it in the provision of another vital public service - our justice system?"

It was revealed last week that coronavirus could prompt the biggest changes to jury trials since World War Two.

According to the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnet, social distancing could mean fewer jurors at trials and sittings moved to bigger buildings such as university lecture theatres,

Mr Justice Edis, a High Court Judge, has been asked to explore how trials might possibly resume.

Mr Wright said: "The Government has taken essential emergency powers to restrict our liberty and place the nation into lockdown and it is more important than ever that there is a fully functioning justice system able to protect our society in a functioning democracy.

"If these steps are not taken, and juries of 12 cannot be accommodated in our courtrooms, then serious consideration will have to be given to reducing the numbers of jurors or exploring alternatives to trial by jury."

Currently, 12 jurors sit in trials in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and 15 in Scotland.

During World War Two, juror numbers were reduced to seven, except in cases of treason or murder.

Any reduction would be the first in peacetime.

A working group chaired by Mr Justice Edis and including the Law Society, Bar Council and Criminal Bar Association, is meeting weekly to consider how and when jury trials might resume safely in England and Wales.

By the end of 2019 the number of outstanding cases had reached 37,434, official figures show.

Mr Wright said: "We did not enter lockdown with a justice system in good health.

"It had been cut to the bone. Suspects were released under investigation for months or years, charging decisions were delayed, significant trial backlogs existed, and the courts were in a terrible state of disrepair.

"Our courtrooms present logistical challenges for hearings for as long as social distancing remains.

"Factor in the movement of prisoners, the attendance of witnesses, litigants, experts, probation officers, interpreters, intermediaries, witness support staff, and the scale of the problem becomes clear.

"How do we operate our justice system and protect the health of those who must participate in it?

"It is our obligation to strive to find practical solutions and to do so quickly.

"Magna Carta declared ‘To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice’.

"Yet the current crisis denies and delays justice to the majority of the users of the courts across the jurisdictions; litigants, witnesses, victims, and defendants."