The Justice Secretary, Alex Norris, has abandoned plans for some criminal trials in England and Wales to be heard by a judge sitting without a jury, in changes to the Courts and Tribunals Bill announced by the Ministry of Justice and published early on Sunday.
The decision removes the most contested element of a Bill that returns to the Commons for report stage and third reading on Tuesday 13 October, according to the parliamentary record. The department said scrapping the measure would allow ministers to concentrate instead on fast-tracking wider changes intended to reduce a record backlog in the Crown Court, where 80,829 cases were outstanding at the end of June, on Ministry of Justice figures published in late September.
The Bill as introduced in February would have created a Crown Court Bench Division to try either-way offences likely to attract a custodial sentence of three years or less, without a jury, according to a House of Lords Library briefing. Those provisions are now being dropped.
Other restrictions on jury trial in the Bill remain. The department said technical and lengthy fraud and financial offences would still be allowed to be heard by a judge alone, and that courts would have the final say over where cases should be heard. That second measure is the removal of an adult defendant's existing right to elect trial by jury for either-way offences, set out in clauses 1 and 2 of the Bill and summarised in House of Commons Library briefing CBP-10515. Magistrates are also to be given power to hand down longer sentences; the Bill as reintroduced would extend the existing regulation-making power to set that limit at 18 or 24 months, against a current general limit of 12 months.
In a statement issued by the department, Norris said:
"This government inherited criminal courts on the brink of collapse, with victims waiting years for their day in court. I remain committed to bringing down the backlog and delivering swifter justice for those who so desperately need it. But I have heard the strength of feeling on the proposals for increasing the number of judge-alone trials in the Crown Court and have made the decision to change course.
He also said: "Justice delayed is justice denied, and I am committed to maximising efficiencies in our system alongside record investment. I remain committed to structural reform which is crucial if we are to bring down the backlog.”
The department said millions would be invested in new technology to modernise the courts, and that judges would be given the resources they need to hear more cases. It gave no cash figure, no period and no comparator for either commitment, and no sitting-day allocation.
When the Bill returns, the government will also make a statutory commitment to consider any impacts of the structural reforms on ethnic minorities and people of different backgrounds, led by an independent reviewer, the department said. The reviewer has not been named, and no terms of reference, appointment process or reporting deadline have been set out.
The Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, Sarah Sackman KC, described in the release as Minister for Courts and Legal Services, said:
"Justice delayed is justice denied. We must take action to bring down the backlog using every lever we have. That’s why we will set out, in our response to Lord [sic] Leveson’s report, the steps we are taking to make the courts more efficient.
“Whether that is using AI to support the listing of cases, rolling out further virtual hearings, or taking steps to ensure defendants arrive to court on time, we will turn the tide and deliver the swifter justice victims deserve.”
The review was conducted by Sir Brian Leveson, commissioned by the then Lord Chancellor on 12 December 2024. His first report, published on 9 July 2025, recommended judge-alone trial for serious and complex fraud and a bench division sitting with a judge and two magistrates. The Bill as drafted did not provide for lay magistrates to sit in the new division, a point raised in written evidence to the Public Bill Committee.
Of the 80,829 outstanding Crown Court cases at the end of June, 23,706 had been waiting a year or more, up 22 per cent on 19,384 a year earlier. That is about 29 per cent of the total; the department's release describes it as "almost a third". The comparable outstanding figure at the end of 2025 was 80,203, against 38,108 in 2019.
The Bill passed second reading on 10 March, when a reasoned amendment was moved against it, and completed committee stage in April. The jury trial provisions drew opposition from the Bar Council, which organised a letter to the Prime Minister signed by more than 3,200 lawyers, and from the Law Society, the Criminal Bar Association and the law reform charity JUSTICE. The Commons Justice Committee, reporting on 10 June, noted that the 2017 Lammy review found juries to be one of the few areas of the criminal justice system where black and ethnic minority defendants do not face disproportionate outcomes.
A change of course had been trailed. Norris told MPs at justice questions on 15 September, answering the Conservative MP Dr Neil Shastri-Hurst, that the Bill might be amended, and The Daily Telegraph reported on 19 September that the Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, was poised to scrap the judge-only trials plan.
The government has said it will publish its full response to both parts of Sir Brian's review in the coming weeks. The then Lord Chancellor told the Justice Committee on 16 December last year that a formal response would come in the spring.
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