Hello, I'm Susan Hume and this is the Yesterday in Parliament podcast.

On Tuesday the 2nd of December, the Justice Secretary David Lamey told MPs he planned to scrap jury trials in England and Wales for crimes likely to attract a sentence of less than three years, but there were

cries from both sides that his plans undermines citizens, ancient rights and freedoms.

There are many aspects of early 13th century England no one would want to keep. The pestilence

say, the flogging, the serfdom, but there is a piece of parchment from then.

Everyone still likes to pray an aid.

We're all proud of our justice system rooted in the Magna Carta.

But we must never forget that it implores us not to deny or delay justice.

The Justice Secretary David Lammy.

He mentioned Magna Carta because he knew that his critics would use it to denounce his plans to restrict trial by jury in England and Wales.

Cases likely to entail a sentence of less than three years will be heard by a judge alone.

The intention is to cut the backlog in the courts.

He argued that more money was going into the

system, but that alone could not fix the problems. And at the moment, victims were waiting

years for justice, while criminals knew it was in their interest to choose a jury trial.

Let's be honest, it's a peculiar way to run a public service. Our world-leading judges should hear the most

serious cases, and I agree that they and the magistrate should decide where a case is heard.

This will prevent defendants from gaming the system, choosing whichever court they think gives

the best chance of success and drawing out the process, hoping victims give up.

Now, Magna Carta protected the rights and liberties of barons in the church rather than ordinary

people from King John, but the Conservative shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick saw modern

parallels.

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