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Prime Minister Andy Burnham has dropped a plan to expand judge-alone trials in England and Wales, but other proposals affecting access to jury trials remain.
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The abandoned plan, introduced under Sir Keir Starmer’s government, would have allowed judges to decide Crown Court cases expected to result in sentences of less than three years. Justice Secretary Alex Norris said he changed course after hearing objections to expanding judge-alone trials, while pledging to tackle court delays. [1]
The Ministry of Justice says judge-alone trials would instead be limited to complex fraud and financial offences. It also proposes keeping thousands of medium-level cases with volunteer magistrates, who sit without juries. [1]
Andrew Thomas KC, chair of the Criminal Bar Association, welcomed the reversal but warned that another proposal would still restrict access to jury trials. He estimated that removing the right to choose a Crown Court trial in affected cases, alongside doubling magistrates’ sentencing powers to two years, would move 25,000 cases a year out of the Crown Court, including 5,500 jury trials. [1]
The Crown Court backlog stands at nearly 81,000 cases. Official projections suggest it could reach 100,000 before the next general election and, in a worst-case scenario, 200,000 by 2035, though there are indications it is stabilising. [1]
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