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Skip to content All News Sport Culture Lifestyle Justice secretary admits court backlog will continue to rise after U-turn on jury trials.mp4 Justice Secretary Alex Norris has scrapped controversial plans to restrict jury trials in Crown Courts following widespread opposition from legal professionals and MPs. Under the revised Courts and Tribunals Bill, judge-alone trials will be limited to select fraud and financial cases, while courts will determine whether minor offences go to magistrates or Crown courts. Norris admitted that the record backlog of 80,829 court cases will continue to rise until new legislation is passed, while refusing to commit to a specific target for bringing delays down.
The U-turn reverses proposals previously supported under Sir Keir Starmer's leadership and championed by David Lammy, which sought to limit jury trials to offences carrying sentences over three years. While legal groups welcomed the preservation of trial by jury, the Law Society warned that moving more cases to overburdened magistrates' courts risks placing severe strain on the justice system. In full Justice secretary admits court backlog will continue to rise after U-turn on jury trials More bulletins Thank you for registering Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in Please refresh your browser to be logged in
Source: The Independent
