Curtailing jury trial

Offenders serving between one and four years who have been released from prison on licence and then recalled for breaching their licence conditions will generally be freed after a further 28 days, the justice secretary announced yesterday. At present, release is a matter for the Parole Board.

It’s the latest attempt by Shabana Mahmood to keep prisoner numbers within the maximum that the prisons can hold and is expected to reduce the prison population by about 1,400. The number of recalled prisoners rose from 6,000 in 2018 to 13,600 this year. In 1993 it was no more than 100.

Mahmood said the impact of sentencing reforms to be recommended shortly by the former justice secretary David Gauke would not be felt before next spring. Her junior minister Sarah Sackman told me on Tuesday that the criminal court reforms proposed by the former judge Sir Brian Leveson might also take a year to implement.

In an interview for my podcast A Lawyer Talks, the courts minister spoke frankly about the government’s planned legislation and its options for reform. They include reclassifying offences as summary only — so defendants charged with some types of theft could no longer insist on jury trial — and allowing more serious cases to be tried by a judge and two magistrates or even by a judge sitting alone.

But will Sackman persuade the public that jury trial needs to be curtailed when some imagine that it was guaranteed by Magna Carta? Listen to the interview and you be the judge.

A Lawyer Talks is a bonus for paying subscribers to A Lawyer Writes. Everyone else can hear a short taster by clicking the ► symbol above. Some of the interview has been reported by the Daily Telegraph.