Jury trials are to be scrapped for all but the most serious crimes under a bombshell plan, which lawyers say will destroy faith in justice and our democracy.
The Deputy Prime Minister faced a furious backlash on Tuesday after a leaked memo revealed the biggest shake-up in the criminal justice system for 800 years as Labour proposes to end jury trials for most offences, apart from murder, rape or manslaughter cases.
In an extraordinary U-turn after years of heralding the importance of jury trials, David Lammy announced in a briefing to all government departments that ‘there is no right to a jury trial’ in Britain and judges alone should handle the bulk of cases to cut the backlog in courts across the country.
The Justice Secretary wants to create a new tier of court with judges dealing with tens of thousands of criminal offences to reduce the backlog of almost 80,000 cases.
But the plans were immediately denounced by lawyers as a ‘stitch-up’ that will usher in secret justice, ‘destroy justice as we know it’ and could lead to civil disorder as prosecutions would be reduced to a ‘bureaucratic formality’, with decisions taken on legal reports submitted to a judge rather than evidence tested in open court.
Mr Lammy was also accused of rank hypocrisy after years of insisting ‘jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement’.
The briefing document, headed ‘sensitive and official’ states that only rape, murder, manslaughter and public interest cases would continue to be heard by juries, with all other ‘lower tier’ offences being heard by a judge alone.
The proposals go much further than the recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson, whose review of the criminal courts suggested using an intermediate court for judge-only trials in ‘serious and complex fraud’ and other technically complex and lengthy cases.
The Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy (pictured at the Labour conference in September) announced in a briefing to all government departments that ‘there is no right to a jury trial’ in Britain and judges alone should handle the bulk of cases to cut the backlog in UK courts
Instead, Mr Lammy wants to send all cases where there is a possible sentence of up to five years to a lower-tier court, with the only exceptions being murder, rape, manslaughter or cases deemed to be in the ‘public interest’.
It is anticipated that as many as 75 per cent of trials would be decided by a judge instead of a jury under the plans.
Under the reforms, magistrates would have their maximum sentencing powers increased from six months to 24 months so they could also deal with more cases.
The official document sent to senior civil servants in all government departments states: ‘The Deputy Prime Minister has now taken his final decisions and is currently seeking collective agreement via write round.’
It suggested that the government is laying the groundwork to make the necessary changes, which would require primary legislation.
But last night as Mr Lammy faced fury from legal groups, the Ministry of Justice rushed out a statement saying: ‘No final decision has been taken.’
Asked what Sir Keir Starmer’s view is of the plan, given that when he was Director of Public Prosecutions he said ‘the general and overriding presumption should be jury trial, with very, very limited exceptions’, a spokesman for the Prime Minister told reporters: ‘I’m not going to comment directly on the source of this story, but more broadly, jury trials will remain a cornerstone of our justice system for the most serious cases.
‘No final decisions have been taken, but it is right that we ask whether there are cases that need not be heard by a jury.
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood (pictured) wants to create a new tier of court with judges dealing with tens of thousands of criminal offences to reduce the backlog of almost 80,000 cases
‘I think we’re slightly getting ahead of things.’
Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick warned the plans would irreparably damage Britain’s democracy: ‘David Lammy once proudly defended jury trials, but now he’s in office he’s getting rid of them in virtually every case.
‘Scrapping this pillar of our constitution because of the administrative failure to reduce the court backlog is a disgrace.
‘Lammy should be getting the courts sitting around the clock, but as the Lady Chief Justice said on Wednesday the Government has turned down extra court sitting days. Instead of doing the hard yards of governing, Lammy is throwing away a fundamental part of our democracy and one of our country’s greatest gifts to the world.
‘For Keir Starmer, the rule of law simply equals rule by lawyers.’
Senior criminal justice figures described the plan as ‘the biggest assault on our system of liberty in 800 years’, saying it would bring Britain back to the days of the Star Chamber in the 15th century when judges handed out arbitrary rulings without any scrutiny.
One lawyer said: ‘This is a stitch-up. It is the demise of the jury trial, a case that Labour has been building since they came to power.
‘This will effectively usher in secret justice and when you erode faith in justice, you bring civil disorder one step closer.’
Former Attorney General Suella Braverman said: ‘This is a serious assault on our liberty. Trial by your peers is a fundamental right in our democracy and goes to the core of who we are as a nation.’
Riel Karmy-Jones KC, the chairman of the Criminal Bar Association, said: ‘This is beginning to smell like a co-ordinated campaign against public justice.
‘What they propose simply won’t work – it is not the magic pill that they promise.
‘The consequences of their actions will be to destroy a criminal justice system that has been the pride of this country for centuries, and to destroy justice as we know it.
‘Juries are not the cause of the backlog. The cause is the systematic underfunding and neglect that has been perpetrated by this government.
‘The erosion of the right to jury trial will break the increasingly thin connection between the State and ordinary people, and risks undermining social cohesion and trust in the criminal justice system.
‘Once that trust disappears, fears of tyrannical governments increase and the faith in justice evaporates for good.’
She pointed out Mr Lammy’s hypocrisy after his 2017 review into racism in the criminal justice system concluded ‘juries are a success story of our justice system’.
In 2020 Mr Lammy insisted: ‘Juries are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement. Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea’.
Law Society of England and Wales President Mark Evans said the Government was ‘resorting to extremes’, adding: ‘This is a fundamental change to how our criminal justice system operates and it goes too far.
‘We have not seen any real evidence that expanding the types of cases heard by a single judge will work to reduce the backlogs.’
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said: ‘It is a short-term decision that risks fairness, undermines public trust, and erodes the very foundation of our justice system.’
