In a major speech in London today, Deputy PM David Lammy declared the need to modernise Britain’s courts and called time on the old, creaking justice system
David Lammy will roll out ‘blitz’ courts, new tech and video hearings in a major package of reforms to overhaul Britain’s broken courts and stop victims waiting years for justice.
The Deputy PM – who is also the Justice Secretary – faced down MPs opposing his controversial plans to curb juries, branding criticism as “old fashioned and male”.
In a major speech in London today, Mr Lammy declared the need to modernise Britain’s courts and called time on the old, creaking justice system. He stood by his decision to remove access to jury trials for defendants facing sentences of three years or less as he vowed to put victims at the heart of his proposals.
The Cabinet minister warned the courts backlog will hit 200,000 by 2035 without a combination of investment, efficiency improvements and structural reforms like changing jury access.
Under a major package of reforms, Blitz courts will be ramped up across the country, listing similar cases together to concentrate court resources. From April, London blitz courts will focus on cases involving assaults on emergency workers.
READ MORE: Huge change to courts as major restriction to be lifted to cut backlog
The judiciary will then explore drug possession and commercial burglary for the targeted courts. The courts will make it less likely that court time is wasted when a case cannot proceed at the last minute.
Elsewhere, prison vans will be allowed to drive through bus lanes in more areas to cut delays in inmates arriving at courtrooms. The escort vehicles will also be able to use the same technology as emergency vehicles that switch traffic lights green in a pilot in London.
Mr Lammy told the audience that new technology like AI will help the court system “smash through delays, cut complexity, and free up people to do what they do best”. AI will be used to speed up case progression by transcribing material and summarising their judgments. Online hearings in the Crown and Magistrates’ courts will be expanded after investment in new video infrastructure.
Crown courts will be able to hear as many cases as possible as a limit on sitting days will be axed under a £2.8billion settlement with the judiciary. Mr Lammy also vowed to end the “postcode lottery” in the justice system with a new National Listing Framework to ensure consistency in how courts are listed.
The deputy PM urged MPs to consider the reforms as a package ahead of legislation on jury changes to be published tomorrow. He told his colleagues: “If we are serious about centring victims of crime, particularly vulnerable victims of crime, that we have to now press forward with all of these measures as a package.”
He said he expected “heated debate” in Parliament, but added: “I have observed that sometimes the debate can sound quite patrician, quite old-fashioned, quite male, forgetting often that the victims of crime are often vulnerable, often minorities, sadly children, and very often women.”
The Ministry of Justice’s gloomy modelling shows the Crown Courts backlog will hit 100,000 cases by 2028. From 2028, the reforms would more than halve the backlog to under 50,000 cases by 2035. It is currently around 80,000.
Victims’ Commissioner Claire Waxman urged MPs to back the plans as victims were dropping out of the process without justice. “The long waits for court are absolutely driving victims out of the criminal justice system,” she said. “And if we don’t have victims coming forward and staying in the process, we can’t bring offenders to justice, and that’s a public safety issue.”
Courts Minister Sarah Sackman said it will take a decade for the pace of trials to improve, which she admitted is “not good enough” for victims. She said: “By the end of this Parliament, we’ll start to see it heading in the right direction so they can have confidence the government is doing everything it can.
“But it will take the best part of a decade for the timeliness of their trials to improve, and I fully appreciate that that is not good enough for victims who are in the system in the here and now. But at least, what they can see is leadership from a government that is prepared to tackle the problems, rather than sit idly by and watch it run out of control.”
Labour MP Karl Turner, who is leading a backbench rebellion over jury plans, said: “There is a deep and growing concern across Parliament that the plan to do away with jury trials is unnecessary and there is no evidential link between Juries and the cause of the backlog.”
Richard Atkinson, from the Law Society, welcomed the lifting of restrictions on court sitting days as a “step in the right direction”. But he warned AI was not a “silver bullet” and called for appropriate safeguards. He also opposed the jury plans, adding: “Lasting reform requires sustained funding for court capacity and the legal profession, not rushed legislation that risks weakening confidence in the justice system.”