DEADLINE: PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR EVIDENCE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!
The government is trying to rush this Bill through so time is very tight!
The committee start work on 25th March and finish on 28th April.. Your evidence needs to arrive before the committee review the part of the Bill your evidence refers to.
If you have knowledge or experience of juries or magistrates in the criminal justice system, (as a legal professional, defendant, witness, seeing a loved one going through the system, or any other capacity) the MPs Justice Select Committee are asking for evidence. We value juries, they build our trust in the court system. Let’s let the Select Committee know that.
Tips about how to write useful evidence
- Keep your evidence short and to the point
- Keep your evidence relevant to the aims of the bill
- Make sure your evidence is all your words
- Only talk about you, don’t reference anyone else by name
- Write in plain English
- Number your paragraphs
- You do not have to write about every aim of the bill
- Write facts about what you know or what has happened to you
- Tell them what you want to happen and say why
- Tell them if there are important questions for the committee to ask the Government
- You should be careful not to comment on matters currently before or about to be before a court of law
- Keep your evidence to less than 25MB
- By default all evidence can be made public, IF YOU WANT YOUR EVIDENCE TO BE KEPT PRIVATE ASK FOR THAT IN YOUR DOCUMENT!
How to send your evidence
- Write your document in Microsoft Word or use Google Docs and download the file in docx format
- Keep it short
- Keep it simple
- Don’t include images or logos
If you want to refer to something that is going through a court, you should discuss this with Committee staff first.
Be honest in the evidence you send to a committee.
Send your evidence, (with the subject line “Evidence for the Courts and Tribunals Bill”), to scrutiny@parliament.uk
This Will Affect You!
We are all subject to the law but the government is about to put in place the most radical changes to the justice system in 50 years, with NO electoral mandate and NO consultation.
As part of the Courts and Tribunals bill the government plans to;
- Remove the right to jury trials for crimes with an estimated sentence of less than 3 years.
- Retrospectively apply this to all cases currently in the queue.
- Restrict the right to appeal cases from the Magistrates court.
- Remove the right to choose between jury and Magistrates court for either way offences.
- Allow a jury to be withdrawn mid-trial.
- Remove juries from “complex” and “lengthy” cases.
- Increase Magistrates sentencing to 2 years.
This would HALVE the number of jury trials happening in the UK and open the door to future reductions. Juries bring humanity and conscience to the court, contrasting with the rigid rules based authority of the judge.
