Scrapping jury trials for some offences may be only way to clear court backlog, says CPS watchdog chief
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"Removing the right to trial by jury" and "intermediate courts" may be the only way to clear the crown court backlog in England and Wales, the chief inspector of the Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate has said. Speaking exclusively to Sky News, Anthony Rogers says "radical action" is needed urgently.
"The number of cases waiting to be heard in the crown courts is the highest it's ever been. "It's bringing significant pressure into the whole system. Those we inspect, the Crown Prosecution Service, are under the greatest pressure I've ever seen in 25 years of the existence of the inspectorate.
"The thing that worries me more is I can't see an end to it. I can only see an increasing backlog.". There are 73,105 outstanding criminal cases waiting to be dealt with in the crown courts, according to the Ministry of Justice. Mr Rogers says: "If you're going to fix a problem on this scale, it needs a radical solution.
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"It could be anything from removing the right of election to jury trial. "It could be looking at an intermediate court between the magistrates court and the crown court, radical could literally mean changing the way that we look at the criminal justice system.".
