Ministers have dropped plans to sharply reduce jury trials in England and Wales after opposition from lawyers. The proposals would have sent more Crown Court cases to a judge sitting alone.
The changes, developed under former justice secretary David Lammy, were intended to help clear a record court backlog. Almost 81,000 cases are pending in the Crown Courts, and the number was projected to reach 100,000 without the changes. Lawyers welcomed the reversal, while the victims’ commissioner raised concerns about abandoning the measures.
The Ministry of Justice says changing course will allow work on the backlog to begin sooner, without the time needed to establish a new judge-only court division. Justice secretary Alex Norris said he had heard the strength of opposition to expanding judge-alone trials.
Judge-only trials remain planned for a small number of lengthy, technical fraud cases where a judge considers a jury unsuitable. The government also intends to let magistrates, rather than defendants, decide whether certain cases are heard in the Crown Court or a magistrates’ court.
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