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.

A group of barristers in their robes holding 'Justice needs juries' and 'Rheithgorau er mwyn gyfiawnder' signs outside the the Houses of Parliament

What you can do to support our campaign

Last updated: 20 February 2026

Sign our open letter to the Prime Minister
Write to your MP
Ask your MP to visit your local Crown Court

1. Sign our open letter to the Prime Minister

We’re anticipating draft legislation to curtail jury trials will be announced soon, so we need to send a strong message to the Government to ask them to rethink the approach. If you’re a legal professional, please add your signature to our open letter to the Prime Minister using the web form.

2. 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.

Download our template letter to send to your MP (updated 5 February 2026)
Find your MP via this website: Find your MP - MPs and Lords - UK Parliament
Add the MP's address, and your address (so that your MP can identify you as a constituent)
Edit the "Dear [name]" and body of the email in the highlighted sections
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.

3. Court visits

Invite your MP to visit a local Crown Court – we’ve had very positive feedback from the MPs who visited their local courts, and we can help you to arrange a visit for those who couldn’t attend. Email us at [email protected]
If you would like help getting in touch with your MP and arranging a visit, contact your Circuit Leader and please contact [email protected]

An image of one page of the justice needs juries leaflet - download as a PDF by clicking on this image

MPs and Peers: download this leaflet