The Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC) received 1,424 applications between 1 April 2022 and 31 March 2023 from people wanting their conviction or sentence to be reviewed, an increase of 226 cases from last year, its latest annual report reveals.

Even though the body completed 7.8 per cent more reviews than in the previous year (1,183 to 1,275), the backlog of cases still under review at the end of the financial year grew significantly from 605 to 718.

In the last year, 25 cases were referred back to the courts — including the first referral of a joint enterprise case in Northern Ireland — and 17 convictions or sentences were overturned following CCRC referrals. The referral rate was consistent with the historical average of around two per cent of all applications.

CCRC chair Helen Pitcher OBE said: “This has been another challenging year with applications on the rise and recruitment and retention a key issue.

“I’m proud of my team, their hard work, dedication and total commitment to our core purpose of uncovering and referring miscarriages of justice.

“I look forward to another year of challenge and development for all at the CCRC.”

The CCRC keeps track of how closely applications reflect the demographics of people convicted of crimes and the prison population, and adjusts applicant engagement work to counter any potential under-representation of certain groups of people.

In particular, the CCRC’s outreach team will focus on engaging with potential Gypsy and Irish Travelling applicants, who currently account for one per cent of the CCRC’s intake despite representing around three per cent of the prison population in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

CCRC chief executive Karen Kneller said: “Last year we talked about the need for us as an organisation to extend our reach and ensure that all of those who might benefit from our services know about us — and can access us.

“Our application rate has now increased to pre-Covid levels and beyond, but we remain concerned there are sectors who rarely apply to us, and we will be doing some scoping work to see what we can do to reach these groups.

“It might seem counter-intuitive to carry out engagement which might increase applications we are under pressure to manage the cases we already have, but it would be wrong to shy away from encouraging applications from those who we might be able to help.”