Speaking in the House of Commons, James Wild MP pressed why the Justice Secretary is considering restricting jury trials instead of first using available court sitting days that could be funded to help reduce the criminal backlog.
James highlighted that nearly 2,000 court sitting days remain unused for rape and other serious criminal trials, even as the Crown Court faces unprecedented delays, with serious cases routinely waiting over a year to be heard. The backlog has now topped 76,000 cases, the highest on record, leaving victims and witnesses to endure prolonged waits for justice.
The government has announced plans to create new "swift courts," where cases with expected sentences of three years or less would be heard by a judge alone. The proposals would also limit defendants’ ability to choose a jury in “either-way” cases and remove long, complex fraud cases from jury trials entirely.
While aimed at speeding up cases and easing Crown Court pressure, the plans have raised serious concerns from legal professionals and civil liberties advocates, who warn that restricting jury trials undermines long-established rights in the British justice system.
Speaking in the House of Commons, James Wild MP said:
"There is capacity for almost 2,000 more court sitting days that are not being used for rape or other trials at the moment. Why is the Justice Secretary not prioritising funding those days to help reduce the backlog, rather than trying to scrap jury trials?"
In response, the Minister for Courts and Legal Services, Sarah Sackman MP, said:
"We are looking, where we can, to invest as much as possible, but I remind the hon. Member that, when we talk about investment in sitting days, we must look at system capacity. That requires not just judicial time, but sufficient numbers of barristers - both defence and prosecution - and as the previous Lord Chancellor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Ladywood (Shabana Mahmood) said, we cannot simply 3D print those. We have to invest in the professionals, and that is exactly what we announced last week, with £92 million in legal aid for criminal solicitors and an additional £34 million for barristers.
"I should also mention match funding for criminal law pupillages to develop the talent pipeline. All of that increases the system capacity, so that when we add on sitting days, it is not just a judge sitting there waiting for a barrister to turn up, which sometimes does not happen and leads to the trial being adjourned, but we have enough system capacity to run at the maximal and most productive level possible."
