Dame Sue Carr said that a decision to prevent crown courts from operating at full capacity has only increased case backlogs.

“It’s a very distressing situation,” Dame Sue told MPs on the House of Commons Justice Committee. She said that crown courts had the capacity for 113,000 sitting days but, despite her request for funds to address delays, the UK government was willing only to fund 106,500.

She said: “You are deferring the cost, and indeed you are increasing it . . . because inflation will mean everything costs more, because barristers and the CPS [prosecutors] are going to have to redo the work” to prepare for trial.

“That is not even to touch on the acute social cost.”

Dame Sue added: “A commitment to the rule of law is not just about respecting constitutional boundaries. That should be taken as read, I suggest. The foundation of the rule of law is a properly funded and properly functioning justice system.”

The Ministry of Justice said that even thought it was “bound by a challenging financial inheritance, this government is committed to bearing down on the crown court backlog”.

“On top of increasing sitting days, we are extending magistrates’ court sentencing powers from six to 12 months, freeing up to 2,000 days in the crown courts to handle the most serious cases, and recruiting more judges.”