Limiting the Right to Jury Trial Is a Populist Attack by Government

Limiting the right to jury trial is a populist attack by Government

The Government’s plan to remove juries from trials of offences that carry less than two years’ imprisonment upon conviction, and trials of fraud and some sexual offences, raises serious concerns about the fairness and integrity of the criminal justice system, especially when viewed against the backdrop of chronic underfunding at every level.

Alex Benn: In Crisis: the ‘Constitutional’ Right to Jury Trial

The ‘Executive Summary’ of the report of Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts: Part 1 opens with a description of a crisis. Criminal justice is in crisis. The open caseload in the Crown Court has now reached a record high. As of December 2024, there were over 75,000 outstanding cases in the Crown Court. That is more than double the numbers in 2019, and trials are being listed as far ahead as 2029. The aphorism “justice dela…