At the end of last year, Justice Secretary David Lammy proposed scrapping jury trials for most offences in England and Wales, restricting the right to a jury primarily to cases involving murder, rape and manslaughter.
Under the announced “reforms,” defendants facing sentences of three years or less would be tried by a panel of newly empowered magistrates or a sole judge, depending on whether the length of the “likely” sentence is two or three years in jail, bypassing the traditional jury system.
This will be complex, time consuming and lead to inequalities in how justice is delivered, a scathing report from the Justice Committee said.
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Yesterday, the Justice Committee published its report on David Lammy’s plan to fundamentally reshape how justice is delivered in England and Wales.
The reforms include doing away with trial by jury and replacing it with magistrate and judge only trials. Together with other proposed “reforms,” the report concludes that this will be complex, time consuming and lead to unintended consequences such as inequalities in how justice is delivered.
References to jury trial or judge only trials can be found in the sections of the report titled:
- ‘The Crown Court’ (pages 42-61),
- ‘Equality: The introduction of judge only trials in the Crown Court’ (pages 66-72), and
- ‘Conclusions and recommendations: Time saving in judge only trials’ (pages 88-96).
If the entire 115-page report feels overwhelmingly lengthy, at the beginning of the report is a 3-page summary which is well worth reading. It includes the following:
The Courts and Tribunals Bill represents the most significant change to the criminal courts in over fifty years. The bill’s central proposals, including the removal of a defendant’s right to elect a Crown Court trial, the expanding of magistrates’ sentencing powers, reforming the appeals process and introducing judge only trials in the Crown Court, will fundamentally reshape how justice is delivered in England and Wales.
Given both the generational significance and the contested nature of the reforms, it is difficult to understand why a broader consensus, within Parliament and beyond, was not sought before the bill was introduced.
The government is proposing that it should be able to change the maximum sentencing power of magistrates by statutory instrument, with limited parliamentary oversight, to one of four options. This could lead to frequent and novel changes in magistrates’ sentencing powers.
On the introduction of judge only trials in the Crown Court, we conclude that the allocation processes as designed are likely to be complex, time consuming and will lead to unintended consequences … We also raise concerns that the predicted 20% time saving of judge only trials lacks a concrete evidential basis.
We share the significant concerns of many in the justice sector around the potential equality impacts of the bill, particularly in relation to race … The bill proposes to expand the role of both the magistrates’ court and judge only Crown Court proceedings, while reducing the role of juries. The Lammy review, in 2017, concluded that juries are one of the few areas of the criminal justice system where black and ethnic minority defendants do not face disproportionate outcomes.
Courts and Tribunals Bill, First Report of Session 2026–27, Justice Committee, 10 June 2026
Yesterday, Free Speech Union brought attention to this report in a tweet, which we have reproduced below.
Tweet by Free Speech Union
The House of Commons Justice Committee has delivered its verdict on the Government’s plans to slash our ancient right to trial by jury.
It is scathing – and will make tough reading for the Deputy Prime Minister and Justice Secretary, David Lammy.
The Government has introduced the most sweeping constitutional reforms to the criminal justice system in years at breakneck speed, despite not having promised them in its manifesto. It seems to be allergic to scrutiny.
The Justice Secretary claims that curbing our precious right to jury trial will save Crown Court time and reduce the backlog of cases. Yet the Committee acknowledges that there is no concrete evidential basis for this claim. In fact, the Institute for Government has said the reforms would save only 2 per cent of court time, not the 20 per cent ministers have promised.
David Lammy’s 2017 review found that juries are one of the few parts of the criminal justice system where black and minority ethnic defendants do not face disproportionate outcomes. This Bill reduces the role of juries while simultaneously expanding that of the judiciary, despite only 1 per cent of Crown Court judges being black.
Back in December 2025, Lammy himself said the reforms would not be applied retrospectively. That is no longer the case. Defendants expecting a jury trial could now have their mode of trial changed without a hearing.
The Free Speech Union’s research has shown that those accused of speech-related offences are almost twice as likely to be found not guilty in the Crown Court before a jury than in a magistrates’ court without one.
Judges, lawyers, opposition MPs, Labour MPs, and even victims of crime have warned that David Lammy’s reforms will undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system.
We must defend our right to trial by jury.
Read the Justice Committee’s report: Courts and Tribunals Bill
Further reading from The Exposé:
- The Need for Sovereign Government Control
- Juryless trials are not a solution for Crown Court backlogs; they are a step toward centralised control
- UK dictatorship is attempting to scrap jury trials – Who really benefits?
- Limiting or eliminating the right to a trial by jury is a goal of tyrants
Featured image: David Lammy in the House of Commons
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