IN Northern Ireland, uniquely in the UK, everyone facing a criminal prosecution is put on trial twice.

Their first trial is in a magistrates’ court, known here as a district court, where a committal hearing will take place.

This is a mini-trial to assess the strength of the evidence and decide if the case is serious enough to be referred up to the Crown Court. The full trial is then held in the appropriate court.

Two trials means waiting for two trials, sometimes on remand. There can be lengthy gaps between them.

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It is a vicious circle: the extra workload in magistrates’ courts adds to the delay.

England and Wales abolished committal hearings two decades ago. Cases go directly to the appropriate court.

Scotland still has hearings to decide where cases go but they do not examine evidence and cannot be considered mini-trials.

Northern Ireland’s two-stage process is a major cause of our appalling remand figures.

Before the pandemic, about one-third of prisoners here were on remand. That has since been closer to a half and this month it rose to an extraordinary 68%.

The figure for England and Wales is 18%. The pandemic peak there of 20% was considered a crisis level.

In addition to the practical and humanitarian issues of prison........

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