UK PM Andy Burnham scraps Starmer-era plans to curb jury trials amid legal backlash: report

Following intense pushback from legal professionals and parliamentarians, Prime Minister Andy Burnham has scrapped controversial plans to drastically curb jury trials across England and Wales.

The sudden reversal marks a significant departure from policies drawn up under his predecessor, Sir Keir Starmer, which aimed to ease severe Crown Court backlogs by having judges sit alone on cases carrying sentences under three years.

Justice Secretary Alex Norris confirmed the government was changing course after encountering a profound "strength of feeling" from critics who argued the proposals threatened an ancient constitutional right.

Under the revised approach, judge-alone proceedings will remain strictly limited to select, complex fraud and financial offenses, while broader plans face complete withdrawal.

Norris told the BBC the backlog would start falling significantly over the next decade as a result of alternative adjustments.

While criminal defense lawyers and bar associations widely praised the decision to protect the integrity of trial by jury, the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) warned that parallel proposals to shift roughly 25,000 cases a year into magistrates' courts could create fresh logistical bottlenecks.

The original reforms were first advanced to tackle record backlogs—which currently stand at nearly 81,000 cases following years of systemic delays and pandemic-era closures—that have heavily exacerbated the wider prison population crisis.

The climbdown follows weeks of heavy political friction, providing Burnham with an early domestic course correction as his administration grapples with compounding pressures across the justice sector.