Bar Council urges greater transparency after reporting widespread prisoner delivery delays
Prisoner Delivery Reform is needed to reduce avoidable delays in criminal proceedings, according to the Bar Council, which has called for changes to the prisoner escort system after publishing new findings on the late delivery of defendants to court.
In a blog published on 29 July 2026 alongside the report Barristers’ observations on the late delivery of prisoners to court, Bar Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said delays in transporting defendants from prison to court are causing significant disruption across England and Wales.
The report examines 213 reports submitted by barristers between 12 February and 8 June 2026 from courts across England and Wales. According to the Bar Council, the reports covered 69 courts and 59 prisons across all six circuits.
The findings indicate that delays were both serious and widespread. Around 24% of reports recorded delays exceeding five hours, while 39% involved delays of between 30 minutes and two hours. A further 34% recorded delays lasting between two and five hours. The South Eastern Circuit accounted for the highest number of reports, with 70 submissions from courts in London.
Kirsty Brimelow KC said the Bar Council gathered its own evidence because it considered the scale of the problem was not reflected by the Ministry of Justice’s reported contractor performance figure of 99.8% for prisoners being delivered to court on time.
The Bar Council noted that its reporting mechanism remains open and said the published figures represent only a snapshot of the wider issue.
For solicitors and barristers representing defendants in custody, the findings reinforce the practical importance of anticipating possible transport delays and the resulting impact on case preparation and hearing management. The Bar Council also highlighted that legal representatives often require time to consult with clients before hearings, while delays may be compounded by shortages of staff available to escort defendants from court cells to the dock.
The report refers to Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review, which identified the Prisoner Escort and Custody Service (PECS) as a significant contributor to court inefficiency. Official data cited by the Bar Council states that in 2025, the non-production of defendants by PECS accounted for 176 ineffective Crown Court trials, representing 2% of such trials, and 885 ineffective magistrates’ court trials, representing 4%.
Defendants in custody are transported by PECS under two contracts that began on 29 August 2020. The contracts, worth around £1.4 billion over ten years, are held by GeoAmey in the North and Serco in the South. The contracts require prisoners to be brought to court in sufficient time to avoid delaying court operations and require adequate staffing for custodial duties.
The Bar Council argued that there should be greater transparency around financial penalties, known as service credits, which can be imposed where PECS is responsible for delays. It said the Ministry of Justice does not publish the annual value of those penalties, describing them as commercially sensitive.
Looking ahead, the Bar Council called for improved and transparent data collection by PECS, prisons and the courts, greater involvement of the Bar in developing the next PECS contract, and public reporting of penalties imposed and how resulting funds are used. It also suggested that savings from wasted contract expenditure and collected penalties could be invested in legal aid, technology and court infrastructure.