Ministers abandon plan to curb jury trials in England and Wales
The government has dropped proposals to move many cases from juries to judges sitting alone after strong opposition from lawyers. Victims’ groups warn the change of course will do little to cut record court delays.
What happened
Ministers have scrapped plans that would have removed the right to a jury trial for many defendants in England and Wales. Under the proposals, cases where the likely sentence was up to three years in prison would have been heard by a judge sitting alone. The policy was drawn up by David Lammy as justice secretary under former prime minister Keir Starmer, but has now been dropped by the government led by Andy Burnham.
Justice secretary Alex Norris said he had listened to the strength of feeling over the plans and decided to change course, while insisting the government still aimed to cut delays and speed up justice. The reversal comes amid a record Crown Court backlog of nearly 81,000 cases waiting for jury trials at the end of June 2026, almost double the 2020 figure.
Some elements of the reform package will go ahead. Judge-only trials will be kept for a limited number of long, complex fraud cases. Defendants facing “either way” offences will no longer be able to insist on a jury trial, with magistrates deciding whether such cases stay in the magistrates’ courts or go to the Crown Court. Magistrates’ maximum sentencing powers will also rise from 12 to 18 months, with scope to extend this to two years.
Why it matters
The U-turn ends a long-running dispute over one of the oldest rights in the criminal justice system, but leaves ministers with fewer options to tackle the mounting Crown Court backlog. The Bar Council welcomed the decision to retain most jury trials, while warning that greater powers for magistrates and removing defendants’ choice of venue could worsen existing disparities for minority groups. Victims’ commissioner Claire Waxman cautioned that avoiding difficult choices rarely resolves systemic problems and said the scaled-back changes were likely to deliver only marginal improvements. The original proposals had followed recommendations from Sir Brian Leveson’s review of the criminal courts, which suggested a new Crown Court Bench Division for offences carrying sentences of up to three years.
The context
- Nearly 81,000 cases were waiting for Crown Court jury trials at the end of June 2026. That is almost double the 2020 figure.
- Andy Burnham became prime minister in July 2026. Dropping the policy reverses a plan from his predecessor, Keir Starmer.
- Part 1 of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, led by Sir Brian Leveson, was published on 9 July 2025. It led to the government's proposals on jury trials.
- The Leveson review recommended a new Crown Court Bench Division, in which a judge and two magistrates would hear offences punishable by up to three years in prison.