The average workload of investigators at the troubled miscarriage of justice watchdog has more than doubled since 2010 and, in at least one case, was closer to four times the average, according to new data obtained under a freedom of information request. Fifteen years ago case review managers had on average 12.5 cases; but according to the latest figures from the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC), the average caseworker is now managing 25 cases. The highest number of cases allocated to a single worker in January this year was 45.
The latest figures were revealed in response to a FOI request made by Newsquest and shared with the Justice Gap and come at a time when there are increasing concerns about failures in leadership at the watchdog.
The CCRC said that ‘the numbers given alone do not do anything to describe the diverse portfolio case review managers may have – for example, one might have 40 simple cases whereas another might have 12 complex cases resulting in similar workload, but different portfolio sizes’. As of January 2025, the commission has 39 case handlers (including nine part-time) with a starting salary of £40,005. The overloading of case review managers’ workload was a theme of a 2021 report by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Miscarriages of Justice which recorded that the average workload had climbed from 12.5 in 2010 to 27 in 2017. The CCRC’s then chair Helen Pitcher told the APPG that the commission ‘ideally’ needed 45 case review managers.
The new data request was made by the journalist Charles Thomson, who has been investigating the case of Jason Moore which featured in the latest issue of PROOF. ‘Just before Christmas, in an interview from his prison cell, Jason told the Romford Recorder he couldn’t understand why it had taken the CCRC over a year so far to deal with his application,’ Thomson explained to the Justice Gap. ‘The new evidence in his case is fairly simple. He was charged and taken to trial because a single eyewitness picked him from a photo line-up as the killer of Robert Darby. That witness has now told Newsquest he was drunk when he saw the stabbing, told police at the time he was drunk, and he isn’t sure he picked the right person.’
Drawing on Newsquest’s recorded interview with that witness, Jason Moore submitted a CCRC application in late 2023; however, by late 2024 Moore discovered the watchdog had not established contact with the witness. ‘I submitted this FOI request to investigate the workloads of CCRC caseworkers. It has revealed that even with a full complement of staff in January this year, the average caseworker was juggling more than 20 cases – and at least one was juggling more than 40. It is obviously questionable whether a caseworker can give each potential miscarriage of justice the time and attention to detail it requires when they are trying to handle so many cases at once.’
