Thousands of lawyers oppose jury restriction plan

More than 3,200 lawyers including 300 top barristers and retired judges have called on the government to drop a plan to abolish some jury trials.

The letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, a former director of public prosecutions, says there is no evidence the "unpopular" plan will solve unprecedented delays in criminal courts.

The proposals, which return to Parliament on Tuesday, would replace juries in England and Wales with a single judge in cases where a convicted defendant would be jailed for up to three years.

Justice Secretary Lammy says changes to jury trials and other reforms can help turn around the Crown Court backlog, which has reached record levels of 80,000 cases.

The delays mean some defendants charged today may not face trial until 2030.

Labour MP Karl Turner, who is opposed to the plan, has told the BBC he held a "constructive" meeting with Lammy in which the deputy prime minister promised a "meaningful" review period to scrutinise how the reforms are working if approved by Parliament.

MPs will debate and vote on the overall principles of the measures in the Courts and Tribunals Bill during its second reading on Tuesday.

While some MPs have voiced concerns, potential Labour rebels may choose to abstain rather than vote against the bill as a whole - seeking to make changes when the bill returns for further debate in the House of Commons on specific amendments.

The bill will still have to clear the House of Lords before it can become law.

The right to jury trial - in which ordinary people decide on the guilt or innocence of defendants brought before Crown Courts - is a cornerstone of the constitution dating back more than 800 years.

The letter organised by the Bar Council, which represents all barristers in England and Wales, says the plan is an attempt "to force through an unpopular, untested and poorly evidenced change to our jury system".

'Bulldozing' jury trials claim

"We have long warned that the criminal justice system is in crisis.... Juries have not caused this crisis," says the letter.

It urges ministers to focus on delivering reforms and steps to modernise criminal justice, set out in a major independent review by former senior judge Sir Brian Leveson.

Sir Brian also called for jury trials to be restricted - but his proposal included volunteer magistrates deciding affected cases alongside a professional judge in order to keep a link to communities.

Kirsty Brimelow KC, the senior criminal lawyer who heads the Bar Council, said: "This letter and its more than 3,000 signatories demonstrate the unequivocal principled and practical opposition to the restriction of jury trials from not only the Bar, but the legal profession as a whole.

"There is very little evidence to support even basic rationality of the government's decision to rush through this legislation which unnecessarily removes jury trials from thousands of people.

"It's not too late for the government to listen to us as experts and as a profession and stop before bulldozing our jury system."

Shadow justice secretary Nick Timothy has urged Labour MPs to join the Conservatives in voting against the changes, adding that juries provide a "safeguard between the citizen and the state".

He said: "Parliament has a clear choice. It can stand up for one of the oldest rights in our justice system or let Labour take a sledgehammer to our constitution."

Speaking to BBC Breakfast on Tuesday, Justice Minister Sarah Sackman said "jury trials will remain a cornerstone of British justice" but argued that there was "no point in having a jury trial if it takes years to get there".

"We have to have all three levers - the reforms, modernisation and investment," she added.

"Only all three will bring down the backlog in our courts."

Study casts doubt on plan

A study of the court backlogs by the Institute of Government, a think tank, projected that cutting jury trials would save less than 2% of court time, assuming that the cases would be dealt with more quickly.

Research carried out by Lammy in 2017, before he was a minister, revealed that juries were particularly trusted by ethnic minority defendants.

He says many comparable criminal justice systems, including Canada's, have introduced similar reforms to speed up justice with no loss of confidence in the courts.

The Ministry of Justice said that more than 90% of criminal cases were already heard fairly without a jury.

A spokesman said: "With victims facing unacceptably long waits for justice after years of delays in our courts, we make no apologies for pressing ahead with our plans to reform the system based on Sir Brian Leveson's independent review, alongside modernising it for the 21st Century with record investment."