Ministers Tell Labour MPs Jury Reforms Could Come With Review Clause
4 min read
The government has told Labour MPs that the decision to scale back jury trials could be reviewed if the court backlog is reduced to a certain level, PoliticsHome understands.
A government spokesperson told PoliticsHome that "this kind of speculation does nothing" to tackle "unacceptable" delays in the court system. However, ministers are understood to have floated the idea in conversations with Labour MPs who are concerned by the policy.
Under the proposal that has been discussed informally, a clause would be added to the upcoming Victim and Courts Bill, triggering a review of jury trials once the court backlog falls below a specified level, according to sources familiar with the discussions. Such a review would assess whether the changes remain necessary.
In December, Lammy, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister, announced plans to reduce the use of jury trials in England and Wales as part of criminal justice reforms aimed at tackling an unprecedented backlog in Crown Court cases.
Under the plans, which Lammy described as "bold" but "necessary", juries will no longer be used for crimes with sentences of less than three years. More extreme offences, such as rape and murder, will still be put before a jury, while new "swift courts" will be created within the Crown Court system to help speed up cases.
Last month, nearly 40 Labour MPs signed a letter to Keir Starmer urging him to ditch the plans, describing them as “an ineffective way of dealing with the crippling backlog in cases in our criminal justice system”.
Among them was Karl Turner, the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East, who recently voted for a Conservative Party motion opposing the jury trial reforms and threatened to resign as an MP and trigger a by-election in his constituency if the government didn't change course.
Turner recently told PoliticsHome: "It is a dereliction of duty for the Justice Secretary to preside over a situation where 20 per cent of courts are not sitting without taking proper action to address this or the multitude of other reasons that delay justice.
"The Prime Minister should intervene and stop this disastrous policy proposal before marching Labour MPs up hills only to U-turn when the penny drops that we will not put up with this."
The Labour government has sought to argue that there are many democracies around the world where juries are available only in certain cases and that, without this action, victims of crime in the UK will continue to wait years for justice.
Catherine Atkinson, Labour MP for Derby North and a barrister, recently wrote in The House that parts of the government announcement had "attracted a huge amount of misconception and misunderstanding" and that, under the proposals, "almost three-quarters of all trials going to the Crown Court will continue to be heard by juries".
She added: "While we are rightly proud of our legal traditions, it is also untrue to suggest the lack of jury trials is something unique to despotic regimes.
"In fact, Sweden – currently placed at number one in the World Justice Project global rankings – is a country that doesn’t use jury trials at all. Norway, ranked number three, also doesn’t. In Germany and the Netherlands, the situation is the same. In France, Denmark and Canada, only the most serious cases are heard by juries."
Labour MPs have also been reassured that ministers will look at whether jury reforms could disproportionately impact ethnic minority defendants, PoliticsHome understands.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson told PoliticsHome: "This kind of speculation does nothing to address the unacceptable delays for victims in our criminal justice system. We are pressing ahead with our plans to reform the system based on Sir Brian Leveson's independent review, alongside modernising it for the 21st century and record investment.
"These are changes for the long-term. Criminal cases today are vastly more complex, while smartphones and digital forensics mean jury trials now take twice as long as they did in 2000."
