Justice needs juries

Our position: we fundamentally oppose the proposal to restrict the deeply entrenched constitutional principle of a jury trial. Our opposition is supported by the Bars of Scotland, Northern Ireland, and Ireland.

Why we don’t support restricting the right to jury trials: there’s no evidence it will reduce the Crown Court backlog of 80,000 cases. We’ve seen no modelling, pilot schemes, impact nor cost assessment to show the proposal will have any impact on the backlog. The Lord Chancellor himself has acknowledged that this proposal ‘will only see the numbers starting to fall by the next general election’. Crucially, it will erode a deeply entrenched constitutional principle and undermine public trust and confidence in criminal justice.

What the government should do instead: focus attention on rebuilding our overstretched and resource starved justice system. We need urgent investment to address the inefficiencies in the system so that criminal trials are no longer delayed by crumbling court buildings, courtrooms sitting empty due to the cap on the number of days courts can ‘sit’, or the failure of prisoner transport to bring defendants to court on time.

• Find out more about our work on criminal justice
• MPs: download our briefing

What you can do to support our campaign

Last updated: 14 January 2026

1. Write to your MP
2. Join sessions, lobbies, court days

1. Write to your MP

We encourage you, barristers, to write to your local MP(s) to voice your concern on the curtailing of jury trials and ask them to raise this issue in Parliament on your behalf.

1. Download our template letter to send to your MP 
2. Find your MP via this website: Find your MP - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament
3. Add the MP's address, and your address (so that your MP can identify you as a constituent)
4. Edit the "Dear [name]" and body of the email according to your practice area, as well as any personal thoughts (optional)
5. Sign and send. We would appreciate it if you could CC [email protected] - this will allow us to track how many MPs have been contacted, and help with further Bar Council engagement.

• Find your MP
• Download template letter to your MP

2. Join where you can: 

• Tuesday 20 January – drop-in session for MPs and Peers in Parliament. Bar leaders will be briefing parliamentarians from all parties on our position
• Friday 30 January – ‘Court Day’ in constituencies. We encourage you to invite your local MPs to visit their local court. We’ll provide a template letter/email for you to send shortly
• Tuesday 3 February – MP lobby day in Westminster (after 4pm). We are asking as many barristers as possible to come to Parliament to lobby their MP. More detail will be provided soon but for any immediate questions please contact [email protected]