Our criminal justice system is creaking – and it’s time politicians were honest about it

Editorial: Today’s revelations about police failure to protect vulnerable victims of domestic abuse follow Independent reports about overwhelmed courts and overcrowded prisons. How much more evidence does the government need before it takes action?

Yvette Cooper has pledged that a Labour government would force the police to consider the need for a protective order within 24 hours of an arrest or a police report (Getty)

The Independent reports today that just over one per cent of victims who complained about domestic abuse were given emergency domestic violence protection orders, which require the alleged offender to leave the premises and not contact the victim. The shocking figure suggests that police are missing the chance to protect hundreds of thousands of victims. Only 10,489 orders were applied for in the year ending March 2022, despite more than 800,000 police reports.

Writing in this publication, Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, pledges that a Labour government would force the police to consider the need for a protective order within 24 hours of an arrest or a police report. She is right to argue that the country “cannot put up with this failure” to tackle domestic abuse any longer. Labour’s pledge to halve violence against women and girls within a decade is welcome.

The Independent has highlighted wider problems in our creaking criminal justice system in a string of recent reports. They include the revelation that prisoners are waiting in jail for five years before coming to trial and that a record number of trials are being delayed at the last minute because of a shortage of judges.