Speeches by Qureshi.

“I thank the hon. Lady for that intervention. I could go on and on explaining how evidence is presented, but all I will say from my years of experience—not just in the CPS, but in the independent Bar as well—is that I have gone through thousands of pages of documents, and juries have reacted to that and been able to dea…”

“Amendment 29 would insert into subsection (3) an additional ground for a lengthy or complex case to be tried without a jury in England or Wales, to require agreement by the defence and the prosecution that the trial is likely to exceed five months. Amendment 30 is almost self-explanatory: it would provide a right of ap…”

“I understand that. It will just save me repeating the same thing again and again in support of each of the amendments, all of which concern clause 4. I thank the Committee for enabling me to deal with them in one go. I beg to move amendment 29, in clause 4, page 10, line 34, at end insert— “(d) the length of the trial …”

“Could I have a little guidance, Ms Butler? Amendment 29 goes hand in hand with amendments 30 to 33. Can I cover those all in one go, instead of repeating the same speech in support of each amendment?”

“I will, but first let me explain. We have enough time to get those people in, so that we can increase the sitting days and reduce the backlog.”

“There are enough solicitors, barristers and judges available. Some of my former colleagues, who are now assistant recorders and recorders, were told that they could do x number of jury trials in a year, then the night before they would be due to sit in a particular Crown court, their session would get cancelled. The on…”

“There was a time, when I first started practising in the criminal law, when defendants’ previous convictions were never allowed to come in unless they were “strikingly similar”. For example, if the defendant had been convicted of a rape in which they had grabbed a woman at night, dragged her through the streets and bea…”

“Since then, the rules have changed massively. Now, in a lot of cases, previous convictions can be brought in, which means that a lot of cases involve applications to do so. As the jury is separate from the judge, it is not prejudiced by other things. That is important because, at the end of the day, the fact that a per…”

“There are countless applications that can be made; another example is an application to introduce certain evidence. Again, those arguments are made in front of the judge. The jury is unaffected, and the jurors will come back afresh and concentrate only on the evidence that is presented to them. I have described some of…”

“”

“The Government’s case is that judge-alone trials will be faster, but that claim has no reliable evidential foundation. The Criminal Bar Association highlighted that the estimate relied upon—that judge-only trials may be 20% quicker—was itself described as being subject to”

““very high levels of uncertainty””

“and even characterised by a senior judge as having been reached on a “finger in the wind”. That is not a sound basis on which to dismantle a constitutional safeguard.”

“When we look at how trials actually operate, the argument becomes even weaker. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to swear in a jury—that is the headline saving. But while a jury deliberates, the judge is free to conduct other work. The system continues to function. A judge sitting alone does not have that flexibility. They mus…”

“There is also, of course, a human consequence to the proposals. At present, responsibility for a verdict is shared across 12 jurors; no single individual carries that burden alone. Under the clause that we are discussing, the responsibility would fall entirely on the judge. That exposes judges to greater pressure, grea…”

“Recently, we heard about a certain politician from a certain party naming immigration judges. That has led to one particular immigration judge being scared, and many others are terrified about what is happening. Again, if these things are left to the judge, we can imagine what might happen in a case where there is a lo…”

“We have discussed the issues with the backlog of cases, and I have maintained for the last week or so that it is not juries causing these problems. Members will be pleased to know that I will not go into the full list of cases and data I spoke to earlier, but if there is better triaging of cases, earlier and more effec…”

“Real operational failures are also contributing to delay. In one case at the Old Bailey, a trial that was expected to last three months went for five, largely because the defendants were not brought to court on time. Around 40 sitting days were lost waiting for prisoner transport, which is the equivalent of eight rape …”

“Earlier we discussed the fact that other countries do not have a jury system, and that is correct. Scotland was referred to, and it was probably an inadvertent misunderstanding, but I understand that Scotland still has a jury system for certain offences; there are 15 jurors for criminal matters, and 12 for civil cases.”

“One also has to understand that comparing one country’s tradition to another is not the correct way. Continental systems, for example, operate on an entirely different foundation. They use panels rather than a single judge, and the panels will have three lawyers or judges and two lay people, or it could be a different …”