The Justice Secretary David Lammy is proposing to massively restrict the ancient right to a jury trial by only guaranteeing it for defendants facing rape, murder, manslaughter or other cases passing a public interest test.
The proposal comes as there is a reported massive 78,000 backlog of court cases partly stemming from the Covid lockdowns
The move would see judges hear cases alone for crimes that could result in a sentence of up to five years to tackle the court backlog but have drawn a swift backlash from senior lawyers, who said that they would not reduce court backlogs and could “destroy justice as we know it”.
The Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick said that Lammy was ripping up this ancient part of our constitution.’
