By Sam Tobin
LONDON, Oct 4 (Reuters) – Britain will scrap plans to remove the historic right to trial by jury for defendants in less serious criminal cases, the government announced on Sunday, in response to sustained criticism of the proposals by many lawyers and politicians.
The decision by Andy Burnham, who became prime minister in July, to drop his predecessor Keir Starmer’s policy comes as hundreds of prisoners were released early to stop prisons becoming full, in just one element of a criminal justice crisis.
Plans to curb jury trials for cases where a jail sentence was likely to be less than three years would be abandoned, the Ministry of Justice said, which was broadly welcomed by the Criminal Bar Association and other groups.
But lawyers raised concerns over the MoJ’s decision to increase sentencing powers for magistrates – who hear trials for more minor offences without a jury – and the removal of defendants’ right to elect trial by jury.
“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.
CBA 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 Bar Council’s chair Kirsty Brimelow agreed, saying that giving magistrates greater powers when the backlog in magistrates’ courts is increasing could be counterproductive.
VICTIMS WAITING YEARS FOR JUSTICE
The current backlog of cases awaiting trial by jury in Crown Courts in England and Wales was nearly 81,000 at the end of June, almost double the figure in 2020, and victims, defendants and witnesses often wait years for cases to come to trial.
Starmer’s justice minister David Lammy last year said reducing jury trials would speed up justice, but met a furious backlash from lawyers who said it curtailed the fundamental right of defendants to be tried by a jury of their peers.
Critics also argued that years of neglect and under-investment by successive governments, rather than jury trials, were the root cause of delays, while the head of England’s judiciary raised “grave security concerns” for judges.
The MoJ said it would maintain plans that complex fraud trials could be heard by a judge alone, which has long been mooted to avoid jurors sitting on months-long cases, though a government-commissioned review this year rejected the idea.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Alex Richardson)
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