LondonBurnham’s government drops judge-alone trials for sentences under 3 years.
The plan targeted a Crown Court backlog of nearly 81,000 cases, and that backlog remains.
Judge-alone trials stay only for complex fraud, while magistrates, who sit without juries, would get doubled sentencing powers of 2 years.
“It would be a car crash if they tried to do it,” said Criminal Bar Association chair Andrew Thomas.
The government still proposes to strip defendants of the right to elect Crown Court trial.
How each outlet framed it
drawn from 30+ reports worldwide
- BBC
- credits reversal to 'strength of feeling' response, notes Criminal Bar Association welcome despite remaining magistrate-power concerns
- Reuters
- contextualizes jury reversal within prison-release crisis (early releases prevent overflow, 81k case backlog could hit 100k)