PCS strongly condemns the justice secretary David Lammy’s reported proposals to restrict the historic right to trial by jury.
PCS considers that the proposed plans for restricting the right to trial by jury are disgraceful, undemocratic, and represent a dangerous dismantling of a cornerstone of British justice that has stood for centuries.
The government claims this is a solution to court backlogs, but it is nothing more than a sticking plaster that will fail victims and defendants alike. The crown court backlog, understood to be around 80,000 cases, is not caused by juries. It is the result of systematic underfunding, staff pay restraint, chronic staff shortages, and years of neglect of our justice system.
Read more at the Public and Commercial Services Union website
