Burglary victims face waits of more than two years for justice even if their offence is solved, official figures show.

       Householders living within the boundaries of some police forces are having to wait nearly 1,000 days from when they report the offence to the trial being completed in a crown court.

       The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data, based on police and court records, reveals wide discrepancies between different force areas with the worst – North Wales – taking 961 days from the offence to court judgment.

       By contrast, the best, North Yorkshire, takes a fifth of that time at 206 days, under six months compared with more than two years.

       The data comes just days after The Telegraph revealed that police have failed to solve a single burglary in neighbourhoods covering nearly half the country over the past three years.

       “It simply cannot be accepted and normalised that victims are expected to wait years to see justice,” said Dame Vera Baird, the victims’ commissioner for England and Wales.

       She warned that the delays were undermining public confidence and increasing the proportion of victims’ either not bothering to report crimes or withdrawing from prosecutions.

       “As a result, many would rather sacrifice their chance at justice than risk being further victimised by our justice system,” she added.

       The data showed that, on average, across all 43 forces in England and Wales, victims of theft and burglary had to wait 433 days in the fourth quarter of last year. This was a 67 per cent increase on the 259 average wait faced by victims in the first quarter of 2020 before the pandemic.

       In North Wales, the wait had trebled in the two years over the pandemic from 265 days to 961 days. It was followed by Warwickshire on 720 days, central London on 645 days, Surrey on 601 days and Essex on 528 days.

       The lowest after North Yorkshire were Cheshire on 247 days, followed by Cambridgeshire 248 days, Nottinghamshire 289 days, Cleveland 308 days and Humberside 310 days.

       There are almost 59,000 cases currently outstanding in the crown courts, of which more than a fifth are more than a year old. The MoJ has pledged to bring it down from 48,000 to 52,000 by November 2024.

       “The MoJ’s forecasts do not instil confidence and work in this area must be turbocharged – or we risk failing thousands of victims,” said Dame Vera.

       The Telegraph revealed earlier this week that of more than 32,000 neighbourhoods analysed, more than 14,000 (46.1 per cent) had seen all their burglary cases in the past three years closed with no suspect caught by police.

       On Tuesday, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) admitted that the data presented a “concerning picture” but said many forces had now set up burglary squads to identify and arrest prolific thieves.

       In a letter to The Telegraph, deputy chief constable Alex Franklin-Smith, NPCC lead on burglary, acknowledged that burglary was “incredibly invasive and traumatic” but said there had been a 51 per cent fall in the numbers of offences in the past decade to an all-time low due to investments in prevention.

       “Many forces now have dedicated burglary teams to identify links between burglaries and find the evidence that enables offenders to be charged,” he said.

       “We will continue to prioritise preventing burglaries, targeting repeat offenders and organised crime groups and solving as many burglaries as we can.”

       Home Office ministers and police inspectorate are urging forces to pledge to visit the scene of all burglaries because of the forensic and investigative leads to be gleaned and support they can offer to victims.

       They cite forces such as Northamptonshire which pledged to visit every burglary victim and set up two teams within CID to achieve that. Since April 2019 – when it launched Operation Crooked – burglaries are down by 50.9 per cent, equivalent to 2,500 fewer victims a year.