The Bar Council has welcomed the government announcement that it will no longer be scrapping jury trials ahead of the Courts and Tribunals Bill returning to Parliament.
The Ministry of Justice has announced that it will no longer be replacing juries with a single judge in some cases.
However, it will remove the right to elect a jury trial, increase magistrates’ sentencing powers and allow some technical and lengthy fraud and financial offences to be heard by a judge alone instead of a jury.
Responding to the announcement, Bar Council Chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said: “This is a significant and welcome move away from reducing the only part of the criminal justice system that actually works, namely jury trials.
“We welcome the government’s swift action in retaining juries and particularly thank the new Lord Chancellor for listening to the Bar and wider legal profession.
“Whilst attention is being given to lifting the criminal justice system from its crisis, we underline that it is a dangerous experiment to increase sentencing powers of magistrates and remove the right to elect from defendants at a time when prisons are at capacity and the backlog of cases is accelerating in the magistrates’ courts.
“The magistrates’ courts are not coping with their caseload whilst the Crown Court backlog is stabilising. Putting more pressure on the magistrates’ courts rather than focusing on reforms that actually are working in reducing delays in the Crown Court is not of benefit to the criminal justice system. We have long called for the focus to be on fixing the swathe of inefficiencies plaguing the system – we know that many can be resolved, and that will make a difference now. In relation to fraud cases, the power to apply for a judge only trial already is in law.
“We know that women, Black people, mixed race people and older people elect jury trials more often than other groups and this proposal risks deepening existing disparities and exacerbating distrust in the justice system from minoritised communities.
“We await further details of these plans ahead of the Bill returning to Parliament.”