Statement from @TheCriminalBar Caroline Goodwin QC chair of the Criminal Bar Association said

“Criminal chambers are on life support and a business rate relief and quarterly rental holiday may just tide many over this critical next three months until courts can reopen. With

90% of criminal barristers and thus their chambers income dependent on trial work there is only government and landlords goodwill left to keep many from going bust.

Without urgent rental and business rates forbearance from government and landlords there will simply not be

sufficient criminal barristers left to prosecute for the state or defend when the courts reopen.

If it’s acceptable for Primark to withhold quarterly rents across all its stores then surely similar big company or pension fund landlords can show some compassion for criminal

chambers. As a nation if we can afford to help out fast fashion over a tricky few months then we must show similar forbearance for the justice system.

Those same shops and cafes which have taken rental holidays and benefitted from business rates relief rely on a

criminal justice system to maintain the rule of law and keep business small and big in business - without criminal practitioners and their chambers in business there is no guarantee of maintaining the rule of law for the whole economy.”