Is the government right to restrict jury trials?
Coffee House Shots
The Spectator
4.4 • 2.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The government's plan to restrict jury trials passed its first parliamentary hurdle this week. It is one measure, amongst many, in a Bill designed to reduce the huge backlog currently facing the Courts. Labour MP Karl Turner and Danny Shaw, a former adviser, join Isabel Hardman to discuss why they have each come to their own, different conclusion about the merits of the Bill.
For Danny, it is a pragmatic yet principled measure that will help mitigate an extreme situation. Karl, for his part, is – as you will hear – ferocious in his opposition, and argues that the evidence simply doesn't back it up. Amongst the debate though, there are moments of agreement – from the state of the justice system, to the government's handling of such a controversial measure.
Produced by Patrick Gibbons.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome to a special Saturday edition of Coffee House Shots, The Spectator's Daily Politics Podcast. |
| 0:11.7 | I'm Isabel Hardman and I'm joined today by Carl Turner, Labour MP, and Home Affairs commentator and former advisor to Yvette Cooper, Danny Shaw. |
| 0:20.7 | We're going to be discussing |
| 0:22.1 | the government's proposals to cut the number of jury trials in England and Wales, which |
| 0:27.0 | passed their first hurdle in the House of Commons this week at second reading, although |
| 0:32.2 | there were a notable number of Labour MPs who did not vote on the bill. Danny, you're in favour of these changes. |
| 0:41.1 | Could you also just explain the extent of them and the planned impact? How much of a difference |
| 0:47.1 | are they actually going to make? Well, the changes that the government has put forward to reform |
| 0:51.4 | the court system have to be seen, not in isolation. They have to be seen as part of a package of measures to reform the court system have to be seen not in isolation. They have to be seen as part |
| 0:56.3 | of a package of measures to reduce the backlog in Crown Courts in England or Wales. Currently around |
| 1:00.8 | 80,000 projected to go up to 130,000 within the next four years and 200,000 by 2035 if no action is taken at all. So the government is |
| 1:14.7 | promising extra investment. It's going to allow the courts to sit for as many days as they can |
| 1:21.5 | for the next financial year. They're providing investment for that. They're providing some additional |
| 1:25.9 | investment for lawyers for legal aid |
| 1:28.4 | and so on. And they're also making or hope to make some efficiencies to ensure that the courts |
| 1:33.5 | run more smoothly. But the controversial element, your right, is the element in the courts and |
| 1:40.0 | tribunals bill, which is around reform of the structure of the system. And there are really three |
| 1:46.1 | elements to that. One is defendants in either way cases, these middle ranking cases, would no |
| 1:51.8 | longer have the right to choose where their case is heard. There will also be extra powers of |
| 1:59.0 | magistrates to sentence offenders for up to 18 months in prison, could go up to two years, so more cases will be heard. There will also be extra powers of magistrates to sentence offenders for up to 18 months |
| 2:01.9 | in prison could go up to two years, so more cases will be heard by the magistrates. And there'll |
| 2:07.1 | also be a new tier of court, judge-only trials, to hear cases where the likely sentence on conviction |
... |
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