Justice Secretary hints at axing some jury trials amid 'unacceptable' Crown Court backlog

11 December 2024, 09:23 | Updated: 11 December 2024, 09:26

The Justice Secretary has hinted that some jury trials could be scrapped because of an an "unacceptable" backlog in cases.

Shabana Mahmood told LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that she would be making an announcement in the Commons amid rumours that some Crown court cases will no longer have a jury trial.

Ministers could bring in an "intermediate" court system made up of a judge and two magistrates, some have suggested.

The Crown Court backlog has reached 70,000, with some victims forced to wait as long as five years for their case to come to trial.

Ms Mahmood said that "justice delayed is justice denied", adding that the backlog was "likely to rise".

Watch Again: Nick Ferrari is joined by the Justice Secretary | 11/12/24

"The sheer number of cases that are coming into the system is so big that even if we were sitting at maximum capacity across the whole of the Crown Court, we still wouldn't be able to touch the sides of that backlog," she said.

"That does say that we need to think about doing things differently, and the announcements that we will be making will set out the government's proposals in this space, but we are going to have to think about different levers, because the problem we have at the moment is victims are waiting far too long to have their case heard in court.

"So many of them drop out because it's years that you have to wait till you get to trial. And we do have to ask ourselves, you know, what does justice look like when you have a Crown Court backlog that's that high, and I do believe that Justice delayed is justice denied.

"So we are going to have to think about a different way of managing our crown courts so that we can crack down on that backlog properly.

John Thomas, a former lord chief justice, is among those who have proposed an "intermediate" court system to cut the backlog.

He told the Telegraph: "Is it right we should have jury trials for all these cases, or should we have this intermediate court staffed by a district judge and two magistrates?”

"The general view has been ‘No, a person is entitled to trial by jury’, but if you are to have trial by jury, you’ve got to pay for it.”

It comes as the government also seeks to increase the number of prison places to reduce overcrowding in jails.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has promised to find a total of 14,000 cell spaces in jails by 2031.

Some 6,400 of these will be at newly built prisons, with £2.3 billion towards the cost over the next two years.

The remaining places will be found by measures including building new wings at existing jails, or by refurbishing cells currently out of action, and an extra £500 million will go towards "vital building maintenance", the department said on Wednesday.

The move is part of a 10-year plan to "make sure we can always lock up dangerous criminals".

Prisons will be deemed sites of "national importance" amid efforts to prevent lengthy planning delays, and new land will be bought for future prisons, the MoJ added.

The full details of the plan are expected to be published later.

The announcement comes after government estimates published last week indicated more than 100,000 prisoners could be held in jails in England and Wales by 2029.

This followed warnings from Whitehall's spending watchdog that Government plans to boost prison capacity could fall short by thousands of cell spaces within two years, and cost the taxpayer billions of pounds more than anticipated.

Expert says there will be overcrowding in prisons 'for years to come'

Since September thousands of inmates have been freed early in a bid to cut jail overcrowding, by temporarily reducing the proportion of sentences which some prisoners must serve behind bars in England and Wales, from 50% to 40%.

But prisons are still expected to reach critical capacity again by July.

MoJ figures show there were 86,089 adult prisoners behind bars in England and Wales on Monday.

The so-called operational capacity for English and Welsh men's and women's prisons is 88,822, indicating there is now cell space for 2,733 criminals.

Meanwhile a watchdog found that at HMP Kirkham, in Lancashire, boredom was contributing to the highest drug use among open jails in England and Wales - category prisons with the lowest level of security.

The men serving time there said they were "frustrated and bored" and many were using drugs, according to chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor.

The positive mandatory drug test rate at the prison was 25% of inmates, the highest level in the open estate, and inspectors "frequently smelt cannabis as they walked around the jail", his findings said.

Criminal barrister says government underfunding is responsible for long court delays

In response, the MoJ said the new Government "inherited a prison system in crisis", adding: "Reports like these demonstrate the need for robust action to get the situation back under control.

"We have zero tolerance towards drugs and will continue the hard work of ensuring prisons like HMP Kirkham become places where offenders can turn their backs on crime for good."

Labour said "gross negligence" of prisons by the Tories was "unforgivable" as it said the Government was taking action.

But shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick accused Chancellor Rachel Reeves of funding "inflation-busting pay rises for her trade union paymasters, but not new prisons to keep the public safe".

Pavan Dhaliwal, chief executive of charity Revolving Doors, said: "We cannot simply build our way out of this crisis, increasing prison capacity and improving the condition of the estate is necessary but must come hand in hand with the commitment to exploring alternatives to custody which the Government is examining via its sentencing review."

Andrea Coomber, chief executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said the money earmarked for opening new jails "would be better invested in securing an effective and responsive probation service, working to cut crime in the community".

The Law Society of England and Wales repeated calls for the plans to be matched by investment in legal aid, the Crown Prosecution Service and the courts, and urged a focus on the "rehabilitation for prisoners to reduce reoffending rates and tackle the courts backlogs to help bring down the remand population".