1st Report - Courts and Tribunals Bill

Key findings

• The government has not published a formal response to Part 1 of the Independent Review of Criminal Courts despite introducing the bill based on those recommendations, inhibiting parliamentary scrutiny.
• Removing defendants' right to elect Crown Court trial will significantly increase magistrates' court caseload, but predictions rely on unreliable data; magistrates may behave unpredictably once sentencing powers increase to 18–24 months.
• The bill proposes extending magistrates' sentencing powers from 12 to 24 months via statutory instrument with minimal parliamentary oversight, deviating from Sir Brian Leveson's recommendation for a permanent 12-month limit.
• Magistrates' court capacity remains severely constrained: government target of 21,000 magistrates by 2029 is unrealistic; chronic shortage of legal advisers; previous recruitment campaigns fell short.
• Judge-only trial allocation criteria based solely on likely sentence length create perverse outcomes: defendants with prior convictions more likely to face jury trial; children less likely than adults for same offence.
• Only 1% of Crown Court judges are Black, unchanged since 2015; jury trials are one of few areas where Black and ethnic minority defendants do not face disproportionate outcomes, yet the bill reduces jury trial role.
• Appeals represent only 0.4% of magistrates' court receipts with high success rates, suggesting proposed shift from rehearing to review may remove important safeguard without sufficient recorded evidence in place.

Recommendations

• Government must publish formal response to Part 1 of IRCC and demonstrate detailed, evidenced plan showing magistrates' court can deliver 21,000-magistrate target and manage predicted caseload increase.
• If right to elect is removed, allocation criteria must be sufficiently flexible for magistrates' court to consider circumstances beyond likely sentence to determine if Crown Court trial warranted.
• Government must address unintended consequences of judge-only trial allocation: review criteria to prevent defendants with prior convictions being more likely to face jury than those without; ensure children are not systematically denied jury trial.
• Any changes to magistrates' appeals system must only be introduced once audio recording of all magistrates' court proceedings is implemented and proven effective; full rehearing right should be retained until this occurs.
• Government must take action to improve progression routes to senior judiciary and set clear national target to achieve representative judiciary and magistracy by 2035; current 1% Black judges since 2015 is unacceptable.
• Repeal of delegated power to vary magistrates' sentencing powers by statutory instrument; replace with permanent sentencing limit to prevent frequent novel changes with minimal parliamentary oversight.

Key actors

Andy Slaughter MP (Chair, Justice Committee), Sir Brian Leveson (Independent Review of Criminal Courts author), David Lammy MP (Deputy Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor), Sarah Sackman KC MP (Minister for Courts and Legal Services), Justice Committee, Ministry of Justice, Magistrates' Association, Bar Council