Justice Secretary David Lammy is proposing a radical overhaul of the criminal courts in England and Wales, aiming to tackle the record backlog of over 78,000 cases currently waiting to be completed in the crown courts.
The core of his plan is to scrap the use of jury trials for all but the most serious offenses, which would fundamentally change the justice system.
Under this proposal, only public interest crimes like murder, manslaughter, and rape, which carry a possible prison sentence of more than five years, would guarantee a jury. For thousands of defendants facing other serious offenses, which could result in sentences of up to five years, a single, lone judge would preside and determine the verdict.
These proposals, which would create a new tier of court called the Crown Court Bench Division (CCBD) to handle most criminal offenses by judge alone, are considered to go significantly further than previous recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s review. The leaked Ministry of Justice document suggests Lammy is also keen to introduce judge-alone trials for complex or lengthy fraud and financial offenses.
The plan has drawn a swift and strong backlash from the legal community. The president of the Law Society of England and Wales, Mark Evans, called the proposals an “extreme measure” that goes too far, emphasizing that the public’s right to participate in determining guilt is vital to the concept of justice.
Similarly, the Criminal Bar Association warned that the measures would not work to reduce the backlog and risked destroying the justice system entirely, arguing that systematic underfunding is the true cause of the crisis, not juries.
Opposition leaders from the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties also criticized the proposed U-turn, warning it could undermine public trust and fairness.
For its part, the Ministry of Justice confirmed that while the proposals have been circulated internally, no final decision has been taken by the government, acknowledging the need for bold action to address the court crisis.
