Government to announce reforms to jury trials

December 2, 2025

The government is set to unveil proposals in Parliament today to curb access to jury trials in England and Wales, as part of a wider package aimed at cutting Crown Court backlogs and reducing long delays for victims and defendants.

Last week, a leaked Ministry of Justice document – reported by the BBC and The Times – suggested Justice Secretary David Lammy was leaning towards limiting jury trials mostly to the most serious cases.

It remains unclear whether that option has been approved by Cabinet or has since been scaled back.

Commenting on the leaked proposals, Nick Johnson KC from Exchange Chambers said:

“When in Opposition on 20th June 2020, David Lammy tweeted ‘Jury trials are a fundamental part of our democratic settlement. Criminal trials without juries are a bad idea.’ Yet his proposals not only ditch what he saw as the plain public interest in being judged by people of all backgrounds and experience for alleged serious offences but also seem to operate on no guiding principle other than saving money, following years of chronic underfunding of the criminal justice system by successive governments. The proposals come at a time when democratic institutions and the rule of law are under increasing threat yet seek to drastically reduce the public from the process of decision making. They also go way beyond the recent recommendations of Sir Brian Leveson for no good reason.”

Sir Brian Leveson was asked by the Lord Chancellor to come up with a series of proposals to reduce the backlog of cases in the criminal courts.

There are almost 77,000 cases waiting for trial in the Crown Court in England and Wales – meaning some defendants and victims are waiting years for justice.

After reviewing the state of the criminal courts, Sir Brian suggested “fundamental” reforms to “reduce the risk of total system collapse”.

To fix what he calls a broken system, Sir Brian has suggested having judge-only trials for certain cases such as fraud and bribery.

Another recommendation involves having more out of court resolutions like cautions.

Providing his thoughts, Mark Rhind KC said:

“Sir Brian Leveson is right to say that the criminal justice system is heading towards systemic collapse – but it should be remembered that this is not because of some inherent problem with the jury system but because it has been deliberately run down for decades.

“Governments of both persuasions have overseen swingeing cuts to fees, a crumbling Court estate, reorganisations of prison services, prisoner transport, interpreter services and probation which have led to massive contracts for private companies but huge inefficiencies and waste. Most recently, before the pandemic, a deliberate decision was made to cut Court sitting days and intentionally maintain a backlog of cases.

“The criminal barristers and solicitors, the people who work within the system day after day and have to deal with these issues, have warned again and again of the risks being taken with a fundamental part of the system and have been repeatedly ignored.

“I can only hope that the Government listen to input from stakeholders before going ahead with radical reforms which remove the rights and protections enjoyed by the people of this country for hundreds of years.

“Again and again studies have shown that the jury system is the fairest aspect of the criminal justice system giving all sectors of society and people from all backgrounds a fair chance and equal treatment.  Watering down those rights and protections should be avoided at all costs.”