Justice secretary David Lammy has announced that jury trials in England and Wales for crimes that are likely to carry a sentence less than three years, will be scrapped.
Lammy had previously said that cutting juries would be a mistake, but ahead of his announcement he claimed that the “facts had changed” and the government needed to bring in reforms to clear the backlog.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Lammy of “scrapping the institution he once lauded”.
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The justice system reforms will include creating “swift courts” under the government’s plan to tackle unprecedented delays in the court system.
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BBC reports: Serious offences including murder, robbery and rape will still go before a jury, and volunteer community magistrates, who deal with the majority of all criminal cases, will take on even more work.
David Lammy said the reforms were “bold” but “necessary”, but the Conservatives described the plans as the “beginning of the end of jury trials”.
Retired Court of Appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson was asked by the Lord Chancellor to come up with a series of proposals to reduce the backlog in the courts, in a process which began back in December 2024.
These proposals included jury-free trials and more out-of-court settlements like cautions.
In July, Sir Brian said “fundamental” reforms were needed to “reduce the risk of total system collapse”.
A previous version of the plan, leaked to the BBC and the Times last week and based on Sir Brian’s proposals, was to end jury trial for most crimes attracting sentences of up to five years.
But announcing the reforms in the Commons on Tuesday, David Lammy retreated from the most radical reforms.
Lammy said the new system would get cases dealt with a fifth faster than jury trials.
He added that it was necessary as current projections have Crown Court case loads reaching 100,000 by 2028, from the current backlog of almost 78,000.
This means that currently a suspect being charged with an offence today may not reach trial until 2030.
Six out of 10 victims of rape are said to be withdrawing from prosecutions because of delays.
A defendant’s right to a jury trial would also be restricted to prevent them from “gaming the system”, Lammy said.
The reforms to the jury process will remove the right for defendants to ask for a jury trial where a case can be dealt with by either magistrates or a new form of judge-only Crown Court.
Defendants facing fraud and complex financial crime accusations will no longer get a jury trial – a recommendation made to the government earlier this year by a retired senior judge.
