Measures taken during the Covid pandemic are to blame for criminals not being jailed, Steve Barclay has suggested.

All jury trials were suspended during the first national lockdown and the backlog continued to grow as a result of measures including social distancing.

Judges have now been advised they should delay sentencing hearings for criminals including rapists and burglars, and reminded to take account of the overcrowding when deciding whether to jail offenders.

Asked about reports of the guidance in the Times, Mr Barclay, the Health Secretary, told Sky News: “It’s a longstanding convention [that] ministers don’t comment on leaks and the Lord Chancellor will make a statement to the house on this on Monday.

“The reason we have the fastest rollout of prison places in 100 years, the reason we’ve got new 100 prison places every week is we recognise, especially because jury trials were suspended because of Covid, that we have a backlog. It’s not people in custody being released.”

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