The government should not be able to extend the scope of legislation curbing jury trial without parliamentary scrutiny, a House of Lords committee has said. In a report on the Courts and Tribunals Bill, the House of Lords Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee condemned what it described as the bill's inappropriate use of ‘Henry VIII’ powers.

It urged the removal of provisions in Clause 3(5) allowing the secretary of state to use secondary legislation to add offences to the list of those that may be tried witout a jury, If any government wanted to further limit access to jury trials by adding offences to the list that may be tried without a jury, it should do via primary legislation and subject to full parliamentary scrutiny and not via statutory instruments.

The committee's report reiterates the principle that the overarching principal aspects of policy should be on the face of the bill, and only its detailed implementation should be left to delegated legislation. On the power in Clause 3(5) it said 'We do not consider it appropriate for such a key aspect of the policy to be left to the less rigorous parliamentary scrutiny afforded to secondary legislation'. 

Committee chair Lord Pitkeathley of Camden Town (Simon Pitkeathley) said: 'The right to a jury trial is one of the fundamental balances in the relationship between the citizen and the state. It is only right that where changes are proposed to that balance, Parliament as the representative body of the public, has the right to subject them to full scrutiny.'

The Courts and Tribunals Bill is due to go before a Lords bill committee on Thursday.