Specialist rape courts promised in Labour’s 2024 manifesto and Crown court efficiency measures would render curbs to jury trials unnecessary, a rebel MP has told the Gazette – as parliamentary scrutiny of the Courts and Tribunals Bill resumes this week.
MPs tasked with scrutinising the legislation have tabled several amendments that will be discussed during sessions of the public bill committee, which resume today.
However, rebel MP Karl Turner, who had the Labour whip suspended last month, told the Gazette that the most important amendment for debate is the one tabled by Labour’s Charlotte Nichols and Stella Creasy calling for specialist courts to hear sexual offences and domestic abuse cases.
Turner has previously pointed out that the government’s ‘utterly ludicrous’ jury trial proposals did not appear in Labour’s manifesto. However, he told the Gazette that the specialist courts were promised in 2024. By introducing specialist courts alongside efficiency measures, ‘we do not need to do away with juries’, Turner said.
Should the amendment on specialist courts be voted down, the government could struggle to get its jury reforms through the Lords. While the Parliament Act provides for the will of the elected chamber to prevail, peers could rely on the convention that this does not apply to non-manifesto measures.
Meanwhile, Geoffrey Robertson KC, founding head of Doughty Street Chambers, where prime minister Keir Starmer practised, warned in a paper published by the Bar Council last night that the government’s ‘ill-conceived plan’ to curb jury trials ‘may well be a cure worse than the disease’.
Robertson suggested parliament could instead pass a law that required trials to be listed for hearing within two years of arraignment. He also highlighted efficiency measures that have helped to reduce the backlog in Cardiff, Liverpool and Preston.
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