Speeches by Paul.

“On 27 November 2025, an hon. and learned Member for whom I have a great deal of time and respect said in the Commons:”

“That same Member also said that the Government”

“Since the cap on judicial sitting days was lifted in October 2025, the backlog has reduced in key regions, including London, and fell materially in places such as Maidstone. The Bar Council and the Law Society both argue that there are further practical changes that can be implemented now without curtailing jury trials…”

“and warns:”

“The Sentencing Act 2026 now allows custodial sentences of up to three years to be suspended, and introduced presumption to suspend short custodial sentences. Those are changes that may well affect plea behaviour, sentencing outcomes and, in due course, trial volumes. They are, however, not obviously incorporated into t…”

““are an important constitutional safeguard which help to ensure fairness, legitimacy and public confidence”,”

“This Committee has seen written warnings that restricting jury trials could particularly damage confidence among women and minoritised groups, and that women survivors are frequently criminalised. It is therefore entirely possible for a measure to be sold in the name of helping women victims while, in fact, making part…”

“”

“One of the biggest weaknesses in the Government’s case is the false choice built into the impact assessment. The impact assessment sets up two options: option 0, do nothing, and option 1, implement the criminal court reform measures in the Bill. That may be tidy as a Treasury Green Book template, but it is substantiall…”

““will do whatever it takes to protect the fundamental right to a fair trial.”—[Official Report, 27 November 2025; Vol. 776, c. 517.]”

““Juries are a success story””

“The equality statement itself admits that it does not have access to full data on who elects jury trials, broken down by disability, religion or belief, sexual orientation or socioeconomic status, and that it cannot draw conclusions on potential differences in verdicts for individuals with protected characteristics for…”

“If juries are removed from their space, more of those contested, context-dependent cases will be determined by a single professional judge, often on material that the digital evidence reform community says is already too weakly authenticated in lower courts. That is not a reassuring direction of travel. The threshold f…”

“The Lammy review found that many individuals from ethnic minorities opted for trial in the Crown court whenever possible, because they had more confidence in juries than in magistrates. It also found that juries, unlike other parts of the system, convicted BAME and white defendants at very similar rates, including with…”

“For all those reasons, I oppose clause 3 standing part of the Bill. It rests on an arbitrary and unstable three-year threshold and asks courts to make constitutionally significant decisions at exactly the stage when the evidence is often incomplete, but then tries to patch over that unreliability through reallocation, …”

“Does my hon. Friend agree that Government Members and the Minister have spent a lot of time talking about victims being central to all of the changes, so why on earth would they not support the amendment if it is really about protecting victims from being cross-examined?”

“Cassia Rowland’s analysis suggests the total impact of the Government’s proposals on court demand is likely to be around a 7% to 10% reduction in total courtroom time, with just 1.5% to 2.5% of that coming from the introduction of judge-only trials in the Crown court bench division. The IFG’s later report goes further,…”

“That is a rather devastating critique, because it does not come from some romantic defence of tradition—attractive though that may be—but stems from a cold look at the Government’s own numbers and the inescapable conclusion that the gains appear modest and come with substantial legal risks.”

“It is helpful to have a debate on new clause 29 for a very simple reason: if the Government insist on pressing ahead with clause 3, with all the constitutional, practical and equality concerns that surround it, the very least that Parliament should require is a proper, time-limited, evidence-based review of who has bee…”

“It is a pleasure to start the day with you and end the day with you, Ms Jardine. I am sure you are very much enjoying starting your day with me and ending your day with me, too. [Laughter.] I have just realised how that can be interpreted. My apologies, Ms Jardine; I cannot account for the minds of other Members. To ge…”