Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s government abandoned proposals that would have let judges sit alone on many cases likely to draw sentences under three years, after criticism from lawyers and politicians.
Britain will scrap plans to remove jury trial for many less serious Crown Court cases, the Ministry of Justice said in announcements reported by the BBC and Reuters on Sunday. The proposals, introduced under the previous government of Keir Starmer and associated with former justice secretary David Lammy, would have allowed a judge alone to decide cases likely to lead to a sentence of less than three years.
Justice Secretary Alex Norris said he had heard the strength of feeling and had changed course. The Criminal Bar Association welcomed the retreat. Its chair, Andrew Thomas, thanked ministers for listening, while warning that a threat to jury trial remained because other changes were still planned.
The ministry said only complex fraud and financial offences would be heard by a judge alone. It also proposes that thousands of medium-level crimes stay with magistrates, who sit without a jury. Reuters reported that lawyers remain concerned about greater sentencing powers for magistrates and the removal of a defendant’s right to elect jury trial in either-way cases.
LBC, citing Ministry of Justice figures, said 80,829 cases were outstanding at the end of June, almost double the 2020 level. Norris said the government still wanted faster justice and a smaller backlog.
Conservatives called the reversal a victory for defenders of jury trial. No legislation implementing the abandoned judge-alone threshold was in force at the time of the announcement.
People Sentiments Mixed
- Criminal Bar Association chair Andrew Thomas said ministers had listened to the evidence
- Lawyers said a threat to jury trial remained because magistrates’ powers and either-way election rules were still changing
- Conservatives described the reversal as a major victory for jury trial