Government Set to Reveal Major Plan to Limit Jury Trials Amid 520,000 Case Court Backlogs

The government is preparing to unveil sweeping reforms that would restrict the right to jury trials in England and Wales, as ministers scramble to address record delays and mounting pressure on the justice system.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy will outline the proposals in Parliament on Tuesday, following the leak of his “final decision” document last week to the BBC and The Times.

It remains unclear whether the leaked plan, which would abolish jury trials for most criminal cases except the most serious offences such as murder, has been approved by the full Cabinet or revised in recent days.

Judge Only Trials Proposed to Tackle Record Delays

The leaked proposals are based on advice from a senior retired judge who argued that replacing juries with judge-only trials for lower level offences could ease delays.

The scale of the crisis is stark. There are currently 78,000 Crown Court cases waiting to be heard. That backlog means some defendants charged today may not stand trial until late 2029 or early 2030. Officials warn the caseload could surpass 100,000 without further intervention.

Under the leaked proposals:

• Most theft, drug, violent, sexual and fraud cases would be heard by a judge alone
• Jury trials would only be guaranteed for offences likely to result in sentences over five years, or for cases of murder, manslaughter or rape
• Magistrates’ sentencing powers would be doubled to two years to increase capacity in lower courts

The plan covers England and Wales only, excluding Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Political and Legal Tensions Rising

Speaking ahead of the parliamentary announcement, Lammy defended the principle of juries but hinted reforms were necessary to protect victims and reduce delays.

“Juries remain, and will always remain, a fundamental part of our justice system,” he said.

But he questioned whether defendants accused of minor thefts should retain the right to jury trial if doing so delayed proceedings for more serious crimes.

However, legal leaders say systemic underfunding, not juries, is to blame for the crisis.

Riel Karmy-Jones KC, head of the Criminal Bar Association, argued that the proposal risks adding bureaucracy while failing to address the true cause of delays.

“Imposing an untested new layer of complexity on an underfunded system with crumbling infrastructure is counter intuitive,” she said.

Criminal barristers and court staff have long warned that the previous Conservative government starved the courts of resources for over a decade, creating the backlog ministers are now scrambling to fix.

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Lammy of abandoning long-held principles.

“Labour have chosen to spend billions on benefits instead of funding the courts,” he said, arguing that Lammy previously championed the importance of jury trials.

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Funding Boost Promised But Questions Remain

Lammy confirmed that the government would invest £550 million over three years in specialist victim services and provide £34 million to encourage more barristers into criminal law.

But with ministers refusing to confirm whether the leaked jury reform plan remains unchanged, the justice system awaits clarity on whether one of the most fundamental aspects of criminal justice is about to be rewritten.