The impact of the horrific scenes on the country’s streets will be felt in the criminal justice system “for months and years”, a cabinet minister said.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the unrest would derail Labour’s plans to overhaul the system, already struggling with a backlog of court cases and overcrowded prisons.
He said the Ministry of Justice had taken up the challenge of “bringing charges swiftly against … thugs and hooligans”, in recent times.
But he added: “The impact of these disruptions will be felt for months and years to come. They make the job of rebuilding the justice system even more difficult.
“They also serve as a reminder of how much worse could have happened if this Government had not acted quickly, weeks ago, to address the crisis in the criminal justice system before it was too late.”
In recent years, more than 500 prisons have been brought forward to ensure a place for people sentenced by the courts, Ms Mahmood wrote in The Observer.
Last month, he announced plans to release some inmates early to free up prison space, blaming the last Conservative government for abandoning prisons entirely. The warning comes as Britain’s top prosecutor says the worst offenders face up to ten years in prison.
Stephen Parkinson, the director of public prosecutions, said the number of indictments would rise and spoke of a “new phase” of cases that would include “more serious charges with heavier fines”.
While most prosecutions so far have been for violent disorder, which carries a maximum sentence of five years, Mr. Parkinson said the more serious offense of rioting, which carries up to 10 years, is under consideration.
“We warned of consequences and we will give them consequences,” he told the Sunday Times. “It’s not about revenge, it’s about delivering justice.”
Mr Parkinson, head of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), also said that Elon Musk’s comments, including claims that Britain was heading for civil war, were “not very helpful”.
Mr Parkinson said prosecutors would authorize “hundreds” of other charges in the coming days and weeks, as most suspects were released as police gathered more evidence.
Mr Parkinson said: “There will certainly be more police work to put the case together, but the maximum sentence is ten years, rather than five years.
“We expect a lot of work to come in the coming weeks as a result of these cases being released.”
On Friday, the former attorney general during the 2011 riots warned that recent far-right violence should be a wake-up call for the country’s broken justice system.
Dominic Grieve praised the swift conviction of those involved in the violence, saying they had used similar tactics in 2011 and that the authorities in recent times had “risen to the occasion”.
However, he stressed, high arrests and sentences will not prevent future street violence except for the large number of court delays caused by years of underfunding.
“There is a wider and longer-term problem, which is that the justice system in this country is not working properly,” he said. The Independent. “You can rise to the occasion, as you can see in the current situation. But in general, the time it takes to bring it to court is very long.
“And I think that in a society where there is a lot of delay in dealing with ordinary criminality, this is a very uncomfortable situation, and it is the result of a constant lack of funding. In fairness to the last Conservative government, less funding was withdrawn before the coalition in the year 2010, but it certainly hasn’t gotten any better.
“If justice is not done regularly, people will lose faith in democracy and the rule of law,” added Grieve. “And I think you could make the argument that it has to do with people coming out and rioting in the streets, I think it’s a bit of a wake-up call.”
The justice system is “in a state of near collapse,” he added.
