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Jury trials in England and Wales should be rolled back for complex fraud cases and some sexual offences, a government-backed review of the struggling criminal courts system has recommended.
Criminals who plead guilty should also receive an even larger reduction in their sentences to ease the pressure on courts, while cautions should be used more widely, the report from retired senior High Court judge Sir Brian Leveson said.
Possession of some controlled drugs like cannabis and voyeurism are among crimes that should be dealt with by magistrates’ courts only and tried without a jury, it recommended.
Despite criticisms from lawyers who say the measures risk undermining centuries of legal precedent, Leveson argued that “the backlog has now become utterly unmanageable and risks jeopardising the entirety of our criminal justice system”.
The recommendations are “not small tweaks, but fundamental changes that will seek to make the system fit for the 21st century”, he added.
Currently, even short trials are being scheduled for 2029 in a delay Leveson called “simply unacceptable”, while the average length of jury trial has doubled since 2000.
Ministers are grappling with criminal courts in England and Wales that are on the brink of collapse, with a record backlog of nearly 77,000 outstanding cases in the crown courts, more than double that in 2019.
Leveson — a former head of criminal justice — recommended that offences with a maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment are reclassified to remove the right to a jury trial. A new judge-only division of the crown court should also be introduced to deal with less serious offences.
Currently, a defendant can receive a one-third reduction on their sentence if they plead guilty at the first opportunity, a level Leveson recommended should rise to 40 per cent.
However, some of the recommendations have drawn criticism from lawyers over concerns that they undermine a person’s long-standing right to be tried by their peers.
“The right to a jury trial is a cornerstone of British justice, providing a critical check on prosecuting authorities,” said Trevor Francis, a criminal lawyer at Blackfords. “Proposals to bypass juries in complex fraud cases or serious sexual offence trials risk eroding public confidence in the system.”
Leveson said in his report that serious and complex fraud trials were often among the longest trials and that “it is difficult for the jury to understand or assess the complexity of some of the evidence in these cases in its entirety”.
He insisted he was “not trying to patronise juries”, but added that such fraud cases often involved “highly complex financial transactions, which depend upon an ecosystem, which members of the public, even criminal lawyers, don’t necessarily fully understand”.
His 380-page report, which was commissioned by the government in December 2024, blames a host of problems for contributing to the current state of the court system.
These include the lack of investment in criminal justice over many years leading to fewer available courts and staff, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the increasing complexity of criminal law and evidence, and the advent of technology.
A second review on court efficiency is due to be published by Leveson later this year. The government is planning to respond to Leveson’s recommendations in the autumn.
