This is The Guardian.

These reforms are bold, Mr Speaker, but they're necessary.

I'm clear that jury trials will continue to be the cornerstone of the system for the most serious offences.

The Justice Secretary wants to scrap some jury trials to reduce the backlog in British court.

It's a system we know is in urgent need of reform.

He's calling it a once-in-a-generation reform. It's radically reducing the number of jury trials.

The backlog means that justice is being

delayed day after day and it has really huge human consequences. But David Lamy is facing opposition

from lawyers, judges and MPs in Parliament. Our century's all right to jury trial is not an

ornament of the past.

It is the living example of a fair trial.

From The Guardians today in focus, this is the latest with me, Lucy Hoff.

I'm joined by Alexander Topping, senior reporter at The Guardian.

So David Lemmy has just stood up in the Commons to announce these really quite radical plans to overhaul the justice system. He's had to row back a little bit

from what he wanted to do, hasn't he? But what's he just said? Well, Lamie has just stood up in the

Houses of Commons and said that the majority of cases, of criminal cases, will now be heard

not in front of a jury, but in front of a magistrate or a judge. So he's calling it a once-in-a-generation

reform. It's radically reducing the number of jury trials in this country. And so crucial to this

is these either-way cases, which is this middle ground

between the most serious offences which automatically go to the Crown Court and summary

offences which automatically go to the magistrate. So this is when people have a right to choose

whether or not their case is heard before a judge or in front of a jury right. So effectively he's

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