David Lammy claims juries are causing a justice backlog, here's the hidden scandal that's really at fault - Nick Dunning

The argument that the system is overwhelmed will appear to many to be similar to the argument made during Covid.

"Save the NHS" by effectively giving up your right to use it, locking yourself indoors for fear of needing medical treatment.

Now we're told we must forfeit our right to a jury trial in order to safeguard the court system.

David Lammy says he's determined to clear the backlog. He says the reforms are about prioritising victims. Lammy appears to believe the only way to safeguard justice is to remove juries. But there might be another way...

Sickness had already been steadily falling up to and during Covid. Afterwards, it shot up.

Under the Tories, some progress had been made up to 2024 to get this falling again, but under Labour sickness has gone up to a point where the average civil service employee is taking more than eight days off per year.

We can see this across departments: Up at the top are Ministry of Justice and CPS staff. Last year at the MoJ, they were having two weeks off, now it's even more. Absence at the CPS has gone from over seven days on average to eight.

The trend is seen among all pay grades, but those on the lowest pay are taking the most sick time. Sickness is up among all age groups, but millennials - 30 to 39-year-olds - are taking more time off than those aged 40 to 49.

Usually, sickness correlates with age, and that trend holds true in terms of time off each employee takes sick.

But the older groups are less likely to take any sick days at all. Less than half of the over 60s took any sick days, and half of those aged between 40 and 59 did. More than half of the under 39s took sick days last year. Can they really be sicker than the over 60s?

When we look at why civil servants are calling in sick, the data is striking. Dwarfing all other reasons, 47.1 per cent of sicknesses is down to mental health. The reality of these rates of sickness will be high levels of disruption - with around half of staff taking sickness, it is reasonable to assume there will be teams that are always short of staff.

If a judge takes a week off sick per se, when he comes back his clerk is off for a week or the barrister is sick, that prolongs the backlog even more.

Unfortunately, we can't see whether it's down to anxiety, ADHD, or more serious conditions, but it's rising, just as claims for sickness benefits are.

Would a private business cut back its operations to the detriment of its customers and its bottom line, or tackle the soaring rates of sickness?

Many Brits will expect the Government to cut back the sick pay and help their staff back into work, before even thinking about reducing our access to jury trials.

The Government think it's wrong to draw a link between staff sickness and jury changes, but many will draw links between staff sickness and the court backlog, which the Justice Secretary claims he's aiming to reduce.

When I approached the Government to ask their view, they told me: "We are rewiring the state and building an agile, productive civil service that delivers for working people.

"The data shows central Government has the same sickness rates as the private sector, and we have a range of tools to ensure our staff remain in work and can return to work as quickly as possible following ill health."