- Justice Secretary Alex Norris has scrapped controversial plans to restrict jury trials in Crown Courts following widespread opposition from legal professionals and MPs.
- Under the revised Courts and Tribunals Bill, judge-alone trials will be limited to select fraud and financial cases, while courts will determine whether minor offences go to magistrates or Crown courts.
- Norris admitted that the record backlog of 80,829 court cases will continue to rise until new legislation is passed, while refusing to commit to a specific target for bringing delays down.
- The U-turn reverses proposals previously supported under Sir Keir Starmer's leadership and championed by David Lammy, which sought to limit jury trials to offences carrying sentences over three years.
- While legal groups welcomed the preservation of trial by jury, the Law Society warned that moving more cases to overburdened magistrates' courts risks placing severe strain on the justice system.
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