Staffordshire's crime czar is asking for the area to be considered a "special case" by the Ministry of Justice to tackle a backlog in criminal court cases.

Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Ben Adams said Staffordshire was facing one of the worst backlogs in the country for crown and magistrates court cases, meaning victims of crime are facing a lengthy wait for justice.

Former judge Sir Brian Leveson has made a number of recommendations to address the national backlog of criminal court cases. The first part of his independent review of criminal courts was published last month.

Mr Adams, speaking at the latest Police, Fire and Crime Panel meeting, said "There are some proposals – maybe even dropping jury trials in some cases.

"I'm not comfortable, I think if that wasn't necessary we wouldn't even be going there. But it may be necessary on the basis that two or three-year waits for serious court cases to be heard is not in anybody's interest."

Mr Adams described the courts backlog as a "particular concern" at the panel meeting held in Stafford.

He said: "We have a Local Criminal Justice Board meeting this week, where we meet with CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), probation, the courts themselves and others, and I am going to be proposing that we now have to move into a different position and require the Ministry of Justice to consider us a special case.

"We are in the top two or three areas in the country for backlogs in both crown and magistrates courts, compared with pre-Covid. It's having an impact on victims – it means they aren't seeing justice done soon enough.

"Witnesses and victims are withdrawing support for prosecutions and the teams that my team commission to look after victims are holding three times as many open cases as they should do. To my view it is unacceptable and is impacting on our performance in terms of criminal justice. "

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said the crown court backlog in Staffordshire was broadly in keeping with the national average however. They added that the Government is funding a record 110,000 Crown Court sitting days this year.

Other measures to tackle the backlog and reduce waiting times include extended magistrates' court sentencing powers from six to 12 months, freeing up to 2,000 sitting days in the Crown Court to handle the most serious cases, as well as initiatives to speed up trials and sentencing, greater use of remote hearing technology where appropriate to improve efficiency and transferring cases between courts to smooth out operational pressures.

They said: "We know that justice delayed is justice denied, and it is clear that many cases are taking too long to reach trial. That's why we're backing our courts with record funding and are carefully considering Sir Brian Leveson's bold and ambitious recommendations for reshaping the courts system to tackle delays and speed up justice for victims."