Protest against plan to scrap jury trials

Martin Shipton

A protest was held outside Cardiff Crown Court to highlight concerns about the ending of jury trials for many offences.

It was one of 30 demonstrations outside courts across Wales and England against the UK Government’s plans, seen by many as the dismantling of an 800-years-old cornerstone of the British constitution.

The Jury Alliance argues that juries are a fundamentally local issue, made up of 12 randomly selected local people. They reflect the local community and provide a vital, common-sense check on the law.

Anne Ross, 69, a social worker in south east Wales, was one of those taking part in the protest outside Cardiff Crown Court.

She said: “I am here with others to raise awareness of the UK Government proposals to end jury service for a significant number of cases. I don’t think the general public have been told about the magnitude of this. Juries come from the communities we live and work in and the idea of a single judge making deliberations is likely to lead to an unbalanced assessment of all the facts.

“I work with vulnerable young people and adults from areas of neglect and deprivation that are alien to the lived experience of the average judge.”

The Jury Alliance is a new public campaigning group, aiming to raise public awareness and demonstrate the strength of public opposition to the government’s plans to limit trial by jury.

Since UK Justice Secretary David Lammy’s announcement in December 2025 that the right to trial by jury would be removed from tens of thousands of cases, in order to reduce the backlog crisis in the criminal justice system, the government continues to rush through this new legislation.

If passed, the Courts and Tribunals Bill, currently at the Report stage, will see a single judge replacing a jury for all cases in the Crown Court where a prison sentence of three years or less is expected.

Flora Page KC, the barrister who overturned wrongful convictions in the Post Office Horizon scandal, recently resigned from the Legal Services Board, the independent regulator of legal services in England and Wales so she could oppose the changes.

‘Cynical’

In her resignation letter to Mr Lammy she said: “I am sorry to say that I believe the backlog is a cynical cover, something that the officials have worked on intentionally to give you and Ms Sackman [Sarah Sackman, the Minister of State for Courts and Legal Services] the ammunition you feel you need to take aim at jury trial. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

Sir Geoffrey Cox KC – a practising criminal barrister of 44 years – told the House of Commons during the second reading debate: “Jury trial is the most powerful instrument and engine of social justice that this country has ever invented. It is a safeguard against oppression. It is a built-in defence against establishment and administrative power … At a time when our institutions are under unprecedented attack, is now the time to transfer a massive trunk of the administration of criminal justice to a representative who will unquestionably be seen as a representative of the state?”