The main crown court serving Salford reduced the size of its backlog of cases during the first three months of the year.
Manchester Crown Square cut its backlog between December 2025 and March 2026.
It is the main Crown Court for cases from Salford, Manchester, Trafford and Manchester Airport.
The release of new analysis detailing the decrease came after a justice minister said it could take “nearly 300 years” to bring the backlog of court cases back to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic without major reforms to cut jury trials.
Sarah Sackman issued the warning after Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures showed record numbers of victims are waiting more than a year for their case to be heard by the Crown Courts in England and Wales, with nearly a quarter of these being for sexual crimes.
However, Manchester Crown Square reduced its backlog of cases by 4.1% in the first three months of the year.
The number of cases which the court had been waiting to be dealt with fell by 71, from 1,671 to 1,742.
Overall, 33 out of 68 crown courts recorded a fall in the number of open cases across this period, according to Press Association analysis of MoJ data.
Some 34 courts saw a rise and one saw no change.
The MoJ said the overall crown court backlog had “fallen slightly” compared with the previous three-month period after a “marginal” drop of 37 cases, suggesting it had begun to stabilise.
This represents a quarterly drop in numbers for the first time in three years.
But the backlog is still up 5% on the previous year and more than double the level seen at the start of 2019 (33,118) before the coronavirus pandemic.
Outstanding cases in magistrates’ courts also peaked at 370,722 at the end of March, up 11% on the previous 12 months (323,194).
Ministers have described the state of the criminal justice system as “absolutely dire” and “on the brink of collapse” as they argued sweeping reforms were needed to grip the problem.
Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham reportedly urged the Government to “proceed with huge caution” and “pause” the plans last year, adding in a BBC interview that ministers should “take a step back and have proper consideration”.
But the Government has since doubled down on the plans to scale back jury trials in a bid to overhaul the justice system and cut the rising backlog of cases.
The Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents barristers and opposes the plan, said the latest figures show the backlog is “coming under control” and cast doubt on the Government’s justification for “curtailing” rights to a trial by jury.
CBA chairwoman Riel Karmy-Jones KC claimed the Government did not have a “shred of evidence that jury reforms were needed” and this was not the cause of the backlog, adding: “It’s high time the Government ditched its ill-conceived attack on the right to trial by jury.”
Brett Dixon, vice president of the Law Society of England and Wales which represents solicitors, said: “Rising pressure in the magistrates’ courts shows that the system remains under serious strain.
“It’s time to scrap headline-grabbing plans to reduce jury trials and focus on the investments and reforms which will really make a difference.”
The Conservatives’ shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy said Labour should be “focused on court efficiency, ensuring they sit more frequently instead of scrapping jury trials”.
But Courts Minister Ms Sackman said investment and greater efficiency were “starting to stabilise the backlog – but they cannot reverse it alone”, insisting “only structural reform can turn the tide to deliver faster justice for victims”.
“We’re moving in the right direction, but the scale of the challenge is stark. In the most serious cases, victims are waiting longer than ever – and at this pace, it could take nearly 300 years to clear the backlog to pre-pandemic levels,” she added.
Sexual offences make up a growing proportion of cases with the longest delays in crown courts in England and Wales, according to Press Association analysis.
Nearly one in four (23%) backlog cases that had been open for at least a year at the end of March 2026 were for this category of offence.
This is up from 21% in March 2025 and 18% in March 2024.
A total of 5,053 cases involving sexual offences had been open for one year or more at the end of this March, up sharply from 3,725 cases in 2025 and 2,904 in 2024.
Rape cases accounted for 11% of the 12-month-plus backlog in March, up from 9% in 2025 and 7% in 2024.
Some 2,350 rape cases had been open for at least a year as of March, compared with 1,639 12 months earlier and 1,212 in 2024.
The category of offence that makes up the single largest proportion of cases open for at least one year remains violence against the person, accounting for 31% of the total in March, up from 29% in 2025 and 25% in 2024.
Claire Waxman, victims commissioner for England and Wales, said “a system that forces a rape survivor to wait years for their chance at justice is not working” and “incremental change is no longer enough”.
By Flora Thompson and Ian Jones, Press Association
