Send first-time, low-level offenders to rehab instead of court, Bar Council says

The crown court in Kingston-upon-Thames, south-west London. The Bar Council says the government proposal to create a third intermediate court will not solve the crisis. Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

First-time perpetrators of low-level crimes should be diverted from trials by paying compensation to victims or enrolling in rehabilitation to solve the courts crisis, the Bar Council has said.

The government has proposed abandoning jury trials for some offences to tackle the backlog in crown court cases, but the body representing barristers in England and Wales said this was “not a principled response” and would not work.