Britain Scraps Plan to Curb Jury Trials After Backlash
The government abandoned proposals to remove the right to trial by jury for defendants facing less than three years in prison, after lawyers and politicians called the plans an attack on a historic right.
Britain will drop plans to remove the right to trial by jury for defendants in less serious criminal cases, the government announced on Sunday, after sustained criticism from lawyers and politicians.
The decision by Andy Burnham, who became prime minister in July, reverses a policy of his predecessor Keir Starmer. It comes as hundreds of prisoners are being released early to keep prisons from filling, one element of what officials describe as a criminal justice crisis.
The plans would have curbed jury trials for cases where a prison sentence was likely to be less than three years, according to the Ministry of Justice. The decision to abandon them was broadly welcomed by the Criminal Bar Association and other legal groups.
“I have heard the strength of feeling”
“I have heard the strength of feeling on the proposals for increasing the number of judge-alone trials in the Crown Court and have made the decision to change course,” Justice Secretary Alex Norris said.
Criminal Bar Association chair Andrew Thomas thanked the government for “listening to the evidence and reaching the right verdict,” though he said “a severe threat to our trial by jury remains.”
The government is not walking away from court reform entirely. The Ministry of Justice still plans to increase the sentencing powers of magistrates, who hear trials for minor offences without a jury, and to remove defendants’ right to elect a jury trial. Lawyers say that amounts to the same thing by another route.
What the lawyers say
Bar Council chair Kirsty Brimelow said giving magistrates greater powers could be counterproductive while the backlog in magistrates’ courts is already growing. The Criminal Bar Association warned the revised plans would still move about 25,000 cases a year, including more complex assault, sexual assault and child abuse offences, onto magistrates, according to The Sun.
“They do not have enough magistrates, enough qualified legal advisers or enough resources to take on thousands of more sensitive cases,” Thomas said. “It would be a car crash if they tried to do it, especially at this time.” Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy described the latest proposals as “restricting juries by the back door.”
Why the plan existed
The case for change was the backlog. Cases awaiting jury trial in Crown Courts in England and Wales stood at nearly 81,000 at the end of June, almost double the figure in 2020, according to Reuters. Victims, defendants and witnesses often wait years for cases to come to trial.
Starmer’s justice minister David Lammy said last year that reducing jury trials would speed up justice. The proposal met a furious backlash from lawyers, who said it curtailed the fundamental right of defendants to be tried by a jury of their peers. Norris, defending the new package, said: “Justice delayed is justice denied.”
