It had warned the Treasury that the backlog could rise to 72,000 cases – up from the pre-pandemic figure of 41,000 – unless is secured an extra £500 million to expand the Nightingale courts and £1.7bn to address the rise in criminal cases.

By the end of June, there were nearly 61,000 outstanding Crown Court cases and more than 364,000 in the magistrates’ courts. The National Audit Office said last week that the criminal court backlog would last for “many years”.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said yesterday that an extra £477m was being allocated to “improve waiting times for victims of crime and start to reduce the Crown Court backlogs caused by the pandemic from 60,000 today to 53,000”.

Derek Sweeting QC, chairman of the Bar Council, said: “There will still be a shortfall of funding to tackle the justice crisis, restore public confidence and reduce the backlogs in our courts and tribunals.”

Jo Sidhu, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said the funding allocation was “window dressing for the many thousands of victims of crime”.