Justice Sec confirms shake-up
Justice Secretary David Lammy MP has confirmed that jury trials will be scrapped for offences carrying sentences of less than three years, in a major overhaul of the criminal justice system aimed at tackling the enormous case backlog.
Speaking in the Commons this afternoon, Lammy confirmed that jury trials are being scrapped for offences carrying a likely sentence of under three years, with these cases instead fast-tracked through new judge-only “swift courts”.
Jury trials will still apply to the most serious and almost all indictable offences, such as rape, murder, aggravated burglary and grievous bodily harm.
The confirmation follows reports last week, based on a leaked memo between Lammy and ministers, in which he set out plans to ditch jury trials for all but the most serious offences.
Lammy, a trained barrister, said the new system will see cases handled around a fifth faster than jury trials, as the Crown Court backlog nears 80,000 cases and some trials are listed as far ahead as 2029.