Lawyers have accused Justice Secretary David Lammy of “scaremongering” to justify limiting jury trials, after latest figures showed a small fall in the Crown Court backlog. While the number of cases waiting to be heard remains high, 80,061 cases were open at the end of March – 37 fewer than the previous quarter.
Mr Lammy justified plans to restrict jury trials by claiming “the backlog is projected to reach 200,000 within the next decade”, in a statement to MPs in March. But the Criminal Bar Association said the figures had stabilised. Chair Riel Karmy-Jones KC said: “It’s high time the Government ditched its ill-conceived attack on the right to trial by jury. The justification for these plans has never been there — these figures show MPs have been misled by assumptions dressed up as evidence.”
And Andrew Thomas KC, Vice Chair of the Criminal Bar Association, said: “The Government’s prediction that the backlog would continue to rise by up to 16.5% year-on-year is beginning to look like an exercise in fearmongering.”
He warned that one impact of limiting the right to a trial by jury would be an increase in cases heard in magistrates’ courts, which are already overcrowded.
Law Society vice-president Brett Dixon said: “It’s time to scrap headline grabbing plans to reduce jury trials and focus on the investments and reforms which will really make a difference.”
Meanwhile, Conservatives claimed chaos in the immigration system had led to courts being overwhelmed.
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy said: “Our courts are clogged with immigration claims funded by taxpayers through legal aid. Immigrants are still claiming this despite Conservative reforms due to human rights laws – that’s why we must leave the ECHR and return immigration decisions to ministers.”
Andy Burnham, the front-runner to replace Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister, has previously called on the Government to “pause” planned changes to jury trials “and take a step back and have proper consideration”.
But Ministers defended the plans. Justice minister Sarah Sackman said it could take “nearly 300 years” to bring the backlog of court cases back to levels seen before the coronavirus pandemic without major reforms to cut jury trials.
Mr Lammy, the Justice Secretary and Deputy Prime Minister, has set out plans to introduce judge-only trials known as “swift courts” for around a quarter of crown court trials which are currently involve a jury, and to remove the right of defendants in moderately serious or “either-way” to choose between a jury or trial by magistrates.