Local people will gather outside Swansea Crown Court this morning from 11am to 1pm in protest against government plans to scrap jury trials for a large swathe of criminal cases — joining similar demonstrations outside more than 30 courts across England and Wales.
The protest is organised by the Jury Alliance. It comes as the Courts and Tribunals Bill — currently at report stage in Parliament — threatens to replace juries with a single judge for all Crown Court cases where a likely sentence of three years or less is expected.
The Bill passed its second reading in March by 304 votes to 203. If enacted, it would remove a defendant’s right to elect Crown Court trial in so-called “either-way” cases for the first time in the history of English law.
Gareth Harper, a graphic designer from Swansea who will be taking part in the protest, said jury trials were a direct reflection of how local communities viewed the law.
“Some of the laws that govern our country date back hundreds of years,” he said. “Jury trials give an accurate impression of how the people in the UK feel right now. Without jury trials our legal system will become stagnant and unrepresentative of our citizens.”
Leigh Evans, a retired nurse from Swansea who will also be at the demonstration, said the right dated back to Magna Carta and went to the heart of what justice meant.
“For over 800 years juries have been the driving force behind fairness and equity in the British judicial system,” she said. “Not one state-employed judge making a judgement, but our peers making a collective decision for the greater good of us all.”
Mike Reed, a retired solicitor from Carmarthen who will also be attending, said the government was proposing to remove a protection that had stood for more than 800 years.
“Trial by jury has been a fundamental principle of the British justice system since Magna Carta in 1215,” he said. “The government plans to remove this right for thousands of criminal cases.”
The government’s stated justification for the change is to reduce the court backlog, which currently stands at around 80,000 cases. Critics point out that the backlog worsened significantly after more than half of all courts were closed between 2010 and 2019, and that limits on the number of sitting days judges could hear each year contributed further.
Opposition to the Bill has come from some prominent legal figures. Flora Page KC — the barrister whose work helped overturn wrongful convictions in the Post Office Horizon scandal — recently resigned from the Legal Services Board so she could speak out against the changes.
In her resignation letter to Justice Secretary David Lammy, Page said she believed the backlog was being used as a justification for a change that had been planned regardless.
The Jury Alliance is a new public campaigning group formed specifically to oppose the plans. Further information is available at thejuryalliance.uk.
