Lord Burnett of Maldon said the hearings were “listed further into the future” than they had been in recent years, The Times reports.

At a media briefing yesterday he called on the Justice Secretary, Robert Buckland QC, to restore sitting days after ministers cut the allocation for 2019-20 by 15 per cent.

Following his comments, the Ministry of Justice said thousands of days would be restored to the allocation for next year.

A spokesman for Mr Buckland said 4,700 days would be added for 2020-21, 200 more than was indicated earlier this month.

Lord Burnett said: “One of the questions will be whether the offer [of more sitting days] is designed to maintain the backlog at the level it is now at or to reverse it to the level it was at a year ago.

“The judiciary would like to see cases tried in all jurisdictions as soon as reasonably practicable after the parties in them are ready to start.”

He added that the backlog was not a decision for the judiciary, but was “a matter which the executive decides for its own reasons”.