Justice secretary David Lammy has once again doubled down on plans to curb jury trials to cut the Crown court backlog.
Asked about his proposals during justice questions in the House of Commons this morning, Lammy said one-third of victims of sexual offences in the backlog have been waiting at least a year for a trial. In many of those cases, ‘there are also defendants playing the system, pleading late pre-hearing after pre-hearing, and witnesses then fall away and cases collapse. For that reason, it’s absolutely right that we change the threshold, introduce the measures that Sir Brian Leveson has properly looked at in order to speed up the process and get those victims justice’.
The Conservative’s David Davis MP told the justice secretary that ‘summary justice is no justice at all’ and urged Lammy to read expert analysis that suggested the Leveson review was based on poor data.
Lammy defended the review, saying the analysis was based on data and international evidence, ‘and that’s why it is important we implement it because there is no silver bullet… otherwise at the next general election the backlog will have soared to over 100,000’.
Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said curtailing appeals would lead to miscarriages of justice, telling the justice secretary that 5,000 cases were appealed from magistrates' courts last year - and 40% were upheld.
Lammy replied: 'Either you believe in our magistrates or you don't. I believe in our magistrates but what Sir Brian recommended was a permission stage and we accept his recommendation of creating a permission stage on appeal. That is the right thing to do, particularly because there are many appeals that have no merits and that's why victims fall away.'
However, Jenrick accused the government of 'willing to tolerate some miscarriages of justice to save a paltry sum of money' and said the 'solution is staring us in the face'. Since Lammy announced his proposed reforms, Jenrick said 640 sitting days have been missed. He asked the justice secretary to 'reflect over Christmas and make scrapping his plan to slash jury trials a New Year's resolution we can all support'.
Lammy replied: 'Let's be clear, it is a permission stage that we are accepting, that was recommended by Sir Brian Leveson. What we need are more sitting days, more investment, and we're doing that. We cannot shirk reform and he knows that jury trials will continue to be a cornerstone of the Crown court system and we need modernisation. All of that not done by the last government.'
Update (2.45pm): David Lammy told the justice select committee this afternoon that he hopes legislation for his proposed reforms will receive Royal assent by the end of 2026. A bill will be introduced to parliament next spring.
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