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Prime Minister Andy Burnham has decided to abandon previously proposed reforms that would have limited jury trials in certain criminal cases. The initial plan, put forward by Sir Keir Starmer’s administration, aimed to allow judges alone to decide verdicts in cases where the potential sentence was under three years. This move was part of broader justice system changes introduced to address significant delays and backlogs in the court system.
According to the Ministry of Justice, judge-only trials would be confined to complicated fraud and financial crime cases. Meanwhile, thousands of medium-level offenses would remain under the jurisdiction of volunteer magistrates who preside without juries. Justice Secretary Alex Norris cited the strong opposition to the original proposals as the reason for reversing course, emphasizing the importance of public sentiment in the decision.
Legal professionals have broadly welcomed the reversal. Andrew Thomas KC, chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, expressed delight at the preservation of jury trials while praising the government’s commitment to introducing measures to better protect victims and witnesses during court proceedings. Despite this, Thomas cautioned that shifting more cases to magistrates’ courts—especially by removing defendants’ rights to jury trials—could overwhelm the currently limited pool of volunteer magistrates and compromise the handling of complex, serious cases.
The controversial reforms, initially proposed by former Justice Secretary David Lammy, were part of an effort to mitigate a mounting backlog of nearly 81,000 cases. This backlog, which has roots in pre-pandemic funding cuts and court closures during lockdowns, threatens to worsen, with estimates suggesting it could double by 2035. Lammy had proposed reserving jury trials only for the most serious indictable offences, while allowing less serious cases to be heard by judges alone in the Crown Court or magistrates without juries. However, this approach sparked widespread criticism from various sectors within the criminal justice system, many arguing that removing the centuries-old right to a jury trial would not effectively alleviate delays
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