It was one of the flagship policies of his predecessor, but justice secretary Alex Norris left his audience none the wiser when he took to the floor in Liverpool to address the Labour party conference.

In a 12-minute speech he did not once mention the key – and still very much alive –subject of jury trial reform.

Norris did pay tribute to Lammy for having ‘set in motion the major reforms we needed’ and said: ‘The changes that we are bringing to our courts will bring down the crown court backlog and ensure we are transforming the experience for victims of violence against women and girls. We will be fulfilling our manifesto commitment and implementing specialist rape courts at every Crown court in the country.’

The Courts and Tribunals Bill is currently at the report stage in the Commons and will face close scrutiny when it goes to the Lords later this year. Under the plans, juries would be replaced with a single judge in cases where a convicted defendant would be jailed for up to three years.

One Labour lawyer, who did not want to be named, told the Gazette: ‘We were hoping for some clarity from the Norris speech but not to mention jury reform means we just have confusion.’

But there remains speculation that Norris will scrap or at least water down the plans. It was reported yesterday by politics website Politico that the justice secretary – who will be sworn in as lord chancellor on Thursday – is planning a new bill with ‘major structural reforms’ to speed up court hearings, the content of which would address some of the concerns about Lammy’s proposals.