Trial Committals (Hansard, 19 May 1999)

§ Mr. Straw

The Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, and more recently the Narey Review of Delay in the Criminal Justice System, recommended that defendants should not be able to choose to be tried by a jury in either-way cases which magistrates have indicated that they would be content to hear.

Having considered this recommendation and the responses to the consultation paper I issued last year on election for trial, I am announcing today that I will be bringing forward legislation when parliamentary time allows to abolish the ability of defendants to elect for jury trial in either-way cases (where the cases are triable either on indictment at the Crown Court or summarily at the magistrates' court).

The Government readily acknowledge that jury trial is preferable for certain sorts of either-way case. The question is whether it should be available at the choice of the defendant, or restricted to cases which objectively warrant it. In the same way that defendants do not have a choice of which magistrate, or which judge and jury, hears their case, we believe that defendants should not be able to choose a criminal justice jurisdiction where their case is tried. England and Wales is almost alone in allowing defendants a choice of court. In most jurisdictions, it is a matter for the court. In Scotland, it is at the election of the prosecution.

The majority of cases in which the defendant elects for Crown Court trial result eventually in guilty pleas, but only after greater inconvenience and worry to victims and witnesses, and at considerable extra cost. This Government's proposals will end the practice that many rightly regard as a manipulation of the criminal justice system by defendants demanding Crown Court trial for no good reason other than to delay proceedings.

But there will be safeguards. In determining where the case should be tried, magistrates' will be required to have regard not only to any defence representations, but also to such factors as the gravity of the offence, the complexity of the case and the effect of conviction (as legislation already requires) and the likely sentence on the defendants livelihood and reputation. Defendants will also be given an interlocutory right of appeal to the Crown Court against the Magistrates' decision on mode of trial.