Juries

There has been no major reform of the criminal courts since the establishment of the Crown Court in 1971, despite Lord Auld making similar recommendations to Sir Brian Leveson in 2001.

Sir Brian’s report found that jury trials are taking twice as long as they were in 2000 - one of the reasons is increased complexity in modern cases, the density of evidence deployed to establish them, and the increased efforts made to provide support and guidance to jurors.

We are working within a system built for a different age and even with record investment, the Crown Court caseload will continue to rise. We need generational structural reform, investment, and modernisation.

Everyone has, and will always have, the right to a fair trial. But there is no right to trial by jury in England and Wales and the vast majority of criminal trials in this country are conducted – fairly, without a jury – in the magistrates’ courts. Jury trials will nevertheless remain for the most serious cases - these reforms are designed to ensure a more proportionate use of overall resource in our criminal courts to ensure we are best serving the needs of both victims and defendants, to deliver better, swifter outcomes.

There is no quick fix - it will take time to tackle an issue which has been years in the making, but we must act before the caseload becomes irretrievable. There are no plans to introduce sunset clauses for all proposals.