Conclusion

71. The reversal of some very long-standing miscarriages of justice has been a good start for this new organisation. It has attracted praise from applicants and their lawyers, and from the Government, for the thoroughness and independence with which it has reviewed cases. We were impressed by the skill of the caseworkers.

72. There are, however, clearly still major problems. Although we have been favourably impressed with the way in which the Commission has dealt with the limited number of cases it has so far examined, we are concerned about the growing backlog.

73. The total financial resources consumed by the Commission are not large in public expenditure terms; equally, the extra resources which might be proposed as a solution to the problem would not be large. The Commission's role and work are, in practical terms, a new service. It cannot be expected that the initial level of funding laid down for a new service is necessarily going to be adequate to the task set, and we accept that some extra funding will be needed.

74. But we do not believe that extra funding is the only issue. There is more that the Commission itself can do. There is, for example, further scope for efficiency savings as the Commission gains in experience.

75. More fundamentally, we believe it ought to be possible to process most cases with greater speed than is presently the case. The key is to identify at an early stage the most critical issues and then to examine those in detail without becoming bogged down or sidetracked by matters which are of less importance.

76. It is likely that the demands upon the Commission will increase relentlessly. However, if the Commission is able, through a combination of these measures, to reduce significantly the time which an applicant has to wait for a case to be reviewed, then the sooner it will achieve what it was set up to do.