Warrants for defendants skipping court in England and Wales up 50% since 2020

Former justice secretary Alex Chalk KC says figures Channel 4 obtained show the ‘horror show’ in the system

Almost 60,000 arrest warrants were issued for defendants who skipped court in England and Wales last year, up nearly 50% since 2020 in further evidence of the “horror show” in the criminal justice system.

The figures, obtained in an investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches to air on Friday, also show that more than 30,000 failure-to-appear warrants are outstanding, meaning that tens of thousands of criminals could be on the run after being charged. It is unclear how many have more than one warrant to their name.