Up to 95 per cent of crown court docket circumstances could possibly be determined with no jury underneath Labour plans to shake-up justice system

Around 95 per cent of jury trials could be axed under plans by Labour which threaten to ‘destroy justice as we know it’, new legal analysis shows.

The eyewatering scale of the proposed cuts can today be revealed after a leaked memo showed the Deputy Prime Minister, who is also the Justice Secretary, plans to scrap jury trials for most offences, apart from murder, rape or manslaughter cases.

In the biggest shake-up of the criminal justice system for 800 years, it is estimated that around 77,000 criminal cases would be heard by a judge alone under David Lammy‘s proposals for a lower-tier court to tackle a record backlog of cases.

Mr Lammy faced a growing backlash from lawyers and MPs yesterday who accused him of betraying the Magna Carta after a briefing document was circulated suggesting all cases with a possible sentence of up to five years be decided by a judge, with the exception of murder, rape, manslaughter or cases deemed to be in the ‘public interest’.

Analysis by the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), which represents barristers in England and Wales, suggests this could impact 95 per cent of cases.

Last night Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and 54 other MPs sent a joint letter demanding the Government increase court sitting days instead of taking a ‘constitutional axe’ to 800 years of jury trials.

The latest Ministry of Justice figures show there were 81,489 cases sent to Crown Court in the 12 months to June.

Of those prosecutions, 2,978 rape, 182 manslaughter and 388 murder cases are being tried by a jury.

Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary David Lammy previously backed jury trials

This suggests that around 95 per cent – 77, 941 cases – could be eligible for trial by judge under Mr Lammy’s plans.

The scale of the proposed reforms has horrified lawyers who say it is a ‘symptom of national crisis’.

Labour has also been accused of rank hypocrisy as both Mr Lammy and the Prime Minister have previously backed jury trials, with the latter calling for them to be extended to all criminal cases when he was a younger lawyer.

CBA Chair Riel Karmy-Jones, KC, said the reforms will ‘destroy justice as we know it’. 

He said: ‘If the latest Government proposals are legislated for by Parliament it seems that about 95 per cent of trials would be heard by judge alone.

‘There must be serious concerns about miscarriages of justice under these proposals, as they will affect tens of thousands of people, young and old, from all ethnic backgrounds, whose fate will fall to be decided by a single judge, without the check and balance that a jury of 12 provides.

‘Victims of serious crime, including serious violent and sexual crime, and those accused of such offences may be deprived of any sense of justice if juries are in effect all but eviscerated from the justice system.’

David Hardstaff, partner at BCL Solicitors, said: ‘Curtailment of jury trials has generally been reserved for exceptional circumstances, such as war or force of terrorism. The idea of jury trials being pared back in peacetime suggests a failure of governance. It is a symptom of national crisis.’

Shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said in response to the plans: ‘Trial by jury is one of Britain’s greatest gifts to the world’

The Conservatives urged Mr Lammy to re-think last night as it emerged courtrooms have lain empty for more than 20,000 sitting days so far this year.

Between 4,800 and 10,000 cases could have been cleared from the Crown court backlog if court space had been fully used, a Conservative analysis of official data showed.

The joint letter by MPs warns: ‘To take a constitutional axe to jury trial because of an administrative failure to provide enough court sitting days is to attack the symptom and leave the disease untouched.

‘Shifting almost all Crown Court trials to judges sitting alone is a step too far.’

It adds: ‘Since Magna Carta the promise has been constant: that no free person will lose his liberty except by the ‘lawful judgment of his equals’.’

Mr Jenrick’s analysis showed 21,236 sitting days have been missed so far this year because individual courtrooms were not open for business.

Each Crown court jury trial sits for about five hours a day.

It means the unused courts could have heard about 9,700 less complex cases, known as ‘either way’ trials which take on average 11 sitting hours to complete, or 4,800 longer ‘indictable only’ trials, which take 22 hours on average.

Mr Jenrick said: ‘If Calamity Lammy did his job and had the courts sitting round the clock, the court backlog would be between 5,000 and 10,000 cases lower each year.

‘But instead of doing the hard yards, Lammy has decided to upend our constitutional settlement.

‘Eight hundred years of history, and the confidence of millions of our constituents, should not be bartered away for a misleading promise of quick administrative gains.

‘Trial by jury is one of Britain’s greatest gifts to the world.’

The Crown Court backlog in England and Wales has hit a record high of 78,329, up more than 7,400 since Labour came to power, latest figures show.

A government spokesperson said: ‘Jury trials are fundamental to our justice system and will always be in place for the most serious offences. No final decisions have been made, but the government is determined to get on top of the record backlog – with 78,000 cases and rising – and get victims the justice they need.’