Prime Minister Andy Burnham has scrapped most of a plan inherited from the Starmer government to try cases carrying sentences under three years without juries, leaving judge-only trials mainly for complex fraud.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham has dropped the central part of a plan to curb jury trials in England and Wales. BBC reported that Sir Keir Starmer's government had proposed judge-only decisions for cases that would lead to a sentence of less than three years.
The Ministry of Justice now says only complex fraud and financial offences would be heard by a judge alone. It also proposes that thousands of medium-level crimes stay with volunteer magistrates, who sit without a jury. Justice Secretary Alex Norris said he changed course after hearing the strength of feeling about the original proposals.
Under the earlier plan, associated with former justice secretary David Lammy, jury trials would have been reserved for the most serious indictable offences, including murder and rape. Less serious cases with sentences of no more than three years would have been decided by a judge alone in the Crown Court.
The Independent described the move as another reversal of a major Starmer-era policy and said lawyers, MPs and campaigners had condemned the original idea. Norris said he remained committed to cutting the court backlog and delivering swifter justice.
No new legislation has been reported as enacted in these accounts. The change is a government decision to narrow the earlier proposal, not a completed statute.
People Sentiments Mixed
- Norris said he heard the strength of feeling and decided to change course.
- The Independent reported campaigners had called the original plan madness and against Labour values.