The head of the Metropolitan Police has said that in 40 years of policing he has never seen so much strain on the criminal justice system.

Sir Mark Rowley said this "massive strain" was due to years of funding pressures and backlogs that built up during the Covid pandemic.

Speaking to BBC Radio 4's PM programme Sir Mark said: "In London we've got nearly 500 cases listed for trial in 2030."

In response, the government said it had taken action "to keep more of the most serious criminals locked up" and more prison spaces were being built. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said its prosecutors were set to receive more support working in remand courts plus extra training.

Sir Mark said the growing backlog meant some victims, particularly those involved in cases of stalking, harassment, domestic abuse and rape, were left waiting years for justice. He said the delays were "incredibly difficult for victims".

Thirty-six people charged with firearms offences in London were currently on bail in the community while awaiting trial, the Met commissioner added.

"The idea of someone charged with firearms offences being on bail rather than on remand... would never happen except in maybe the most bizarre, exceptional case," he said.

"That's becoming too frequent and those risks are then walking around communities."

Director of public prosecutions at the CPS, Stephen Parkinson, said prosecutors in busy remand courts would receive more support, alongside extra training and stronger checks on bail, remand hearings and risk management.

He said the changes would focus on cases involving repeat offending and serious risks to victims, while the CPS was also working with police to improve information sharing for bail decisions.

Sir Mark said the number of defendants being charged by the Met had risen from about 4,000 a month two years ago to 7,500 a month, despite the force becoming smaller.

He also warned that prison overcrowding and the government's early release scheme were creating additional pressures for policing.

Referring to further releases due to take place, he said: "Tomorrow we've got more prisoners being released under the early release scheme", after "700 earlier on in the month".

Sir Mark said ministers had inherited a prison capacity crisis and "had to pull some urgent levers" because "they didn't have any choice".

While stressing he was not criticising the decision, he said the consequences were being felt on the front line, with officers increasingly required to manage offenders in the community who would previously have remained behind bars.

"There is a significant issue if you've got offenders in communities who police are trying to manage the risk of when historically they wouldn't have been there, they'd have been in prison," he said.

He added: "It's going to take real vigour and pace and imagination to fix a system which is now in this position."

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "Within weeks of coming into office, the prime minister and justice secretary took action to keep more of the most serious criminals locked up.

"But we have been honest about the scale of the crisis we inherited in our prisons. If we had failed to act, the police would have been forced to halt arrests, putting communities at untold risk."

The spokesperson said ministers were building new prison spaces, increasing victim support funding and giving probation greater powers to impose strict restrictions on released offenders.

When addressing figures showing confidence in local policing and victim satisfaction had fallen over the past decade, Sir Mark acknowledged that "some of it is definitely on us", but argued the decline reflected a broader fall in trust in public institutions across many Western countries.

He said confidence in the Met had improved in recent years, with satisfaction among victims in London rising by about 4% to 5%, while more than 80% of Londoners reported excellent, good or fair confidence in the policing of their local area.

He said: "My biggest loyalty... is to victims and communities. We are seeing the trauma, we are seeing the offending, we are seeing the effect of crime on them.

"That makes us really focused on trying to make sure, not just ourselves, but the whole system does everything it can do in support of them."