Issue 428  13th December 2025

Judges have described David Lammy’s plans to curb jury trials as a “harmful distraction” that will fail to reduce court backlogs. The judges – both serving and retired – have spoken out amid a backlash from both Labour and Tory MPs against the Justice Secretary’s plans to halve the number of jury trials. Mr Lammy is proposing to axe jury trials for defendants facing prison sentences of less than three years. They will instead have their cases heard by magistrates or by a new Canadian-style tier of judge-only courts.

Lord Thomas, the former lord chief justice of England and Wales, said the reform “won’t fix the backlog quickly enough”. “Our system depends upon someone having to make a choice to plead guilty or not guilty quickly, and if you delay that you will go on increasing the backlog,” he said. He also criticised Mr Lammy’s decision for not taking up former appeal judge Sir Brian Leveson’s recommendation to have an intermediate court of a judge and two magistrates...

Chris Kinch KC, who was the most senior judge at Woolwich crown court until stepping down last year, said: “I just don’t think this is going to sort out the problem. Nobody’s talking about how you get rid of the current backlog, because you can’t unless you make these changes retrospective, which everybody would be up in arms about. The only answer is to provide the judges and the courtrooms and the legal aid funding to do it, which I suspect is why they won’t, because the [Ministry of Justice] is obsessed with saving costs and cutting the budget.” He said the move would undermine justice. “I know there are a lot of people who will say, ‘Oh, juries don’t understand this, they don’t understand that.’ But the fact is, over the piece, juries get things right and you have to be pretty brave to say that 12 citizens is anything other than an impartial tribunal,” he said...

A full assessment of the impact of curbing jury trials will be published when the necessary legislation begins its parliamentary journey, justice minister Sarah Sackman has said - amid growing calls from MPs to see the evidence. Announcing plans to axe a quarter of jury trials earlier this month to cut the Crown court backlog, the Ministry of Justice said cases heard by judges alone in its proposed ‘swift courts’ would take an estimated 20% less time than jury trials.

In a written parliamentary question, Labour’s Andy Slaughter, chair of the Commons justice select committee, asked for the evidence backing the time estimate and other analysis mentioned in part one of Sir Brian Leveson’s criminal courts review. Replying, Sackman said jury selection, the need to explain legal concepts to a juror and jury deliberation add to the time it takes to hear a case, and offences heard by magistrates complete four times faster than similar cases in the Crown court...

Ministers were repeatedly asked about the impact assessment during an urgent debate in the Commons this week. Justice secretary David Lammy will be quizzed on his jury plan when he appears before the justice committee next Tuesday...

Corrupt insiders and criminal networks will be brought to justice by a strengthened specialist police unit and tougher safeguards across the public sector, as government unveils a landmark anti-corruption strategy. Launching today, the new strategy sets out how the UK will shut out corrupt actors, disrupt dirty money and restore integrity in public life. It targets corrupt networks at home and abroad to strengthen national security while driving growth...

The strategy will target professional enablers – the corrupt lawyers, accountants and bankers – who help dirty money flow. By expanding the use of sanctions and scaling up the NCA’s capability and coordination, enablers will be hunted down and prosecuted for moving criminal profits. It follows an additional £110 million funding annually from the Economic Crime Levy to tackle economic crime, bringing the total to £235 million per year – kickstarting economic growth and creating safer streets by ensuring that the UK is a safe place in which to do business...

Insiders working in the police, prison service and at the border will be exposed through more robust vetting to ensure those with a history of corruption or serious misconduct cannot move undetected between organisations. Access to the Police National Database and expansion of National Integrity Screening will seek to strengthen this work. Enhanced integrity checks will also be rolled out which require new recruits to Border Force and Immigration Enforcement to disclose previous convictions. From early next year, people linked to criminality in a former role will be blocked from jobs at the border, reducing the ability of organised crime groups to infiltrate frontline services to smuggle illegal items...

Baroness Anne Longfield CBE has been appointed to chair the Independent Inquiry into Grooming Gangs as part of a 3-person panel appointed under the Inquiries Act, finally getting answers for victims and survivors. Longfield, a former Children’s Commissioner appointed in 2015 under the previous government, will be part of a 3-person panel. The three, appointed under the Inquiries Act, will investigate how young people were failed time and again by the very people who should have protected them. Longfield will work alongside Zoë Billingham CBE and Eleanor Kelly CBE as panellists...

From 4 December 2025, City of London Police is launching Report Fraud, a new service that replaces Action Fraud as the national platform for reporting cyber crime and fraud. The Serious Fraud Office is informing stakeholders of this change to ensure awareness of the new reporting service for victims of cyber crime and fraud...

The service includes:

• A new Report Fraud Contact Centre and online reporting tool, where victims can make reports of cyber crime and fraud
• The Report Fraud National Crime Analysis Service (N-CAS), replacing Action Fraud’s backend system for analysing reports. All police forces will have access to this system
• The Report Fraud Victim Service (formerly the National Economic Crime Victim Care Unit), continuing to provide specialist victim support