So-I would ask, I guess, A, do you accept that as a defense for what they're trying to do, and B, what, what solutions could you offer to that backlog that protect jury trials?

Yeah.

It's a really important point because it is absolutely appalling that, uh, that complainants, that defendants, that witnesses are having to wait for years, um, to see their trial come to court.

And, and, it's, it's, uh, it is appalling, and it's something that has been allowed to develop through a mechanism which is called sitting days.

And it's a way to put a cap on the amount of days that any Crown Court can sit and hear cases.

And there has been periods of time over recent years where there's been restricted sitting days.

And what's very interesting, however, is that following a, a buildup of the backlog, when the COVID pandemic was followed quite quickly by, um, barristers taking action saying, "Look, really, enough is enough after 25 years of absolutely no increase in fees," and the inflation not even coming close to bringing us to where, uh, once upon a time the fees were, there was some action taken, and a, a small improvement was made in, in fees for barristers.

Mm.