Burnham scraps controversial jury trial plan in another Starmer policy reversal

• Justice Secretary Alex Norris has scrapped radical plans to drastically reduce jury trials across England and Wales in a bid to tackle court backlogs.
• The proposal to restrict jury trials had been introduced by former justice secretary David Lammy under Sir Keir Starmer and faced widespread backlash from MPs, lawyers, and campaigners.
• Under the revised policy, judge-alone trials without a jury will now be limited strictly to specific fraud and financial offences.
• Further changes will remove the automatic right for defendants facing minor offences to choose a Crown Court jury trial, transferring decision-making power to the courts.
• While legal organisations welcomed the decision to preserve jury trials, concerns remain that shifting thousands of cases to magistrates' courts will exacerbate existing delays.

IN FULL

Burnham scraps controversial Starmer plan to axe jury trials