The Justice Secretary has announced that jury trials will be abolished for crimes punishable with less than three years’ imprisonment.
The justice system reforms are part of the government’s plan to deal with unprecedented delays in the court system.
Serious crimes including murder, robbery and rape will still go before a jury.
Crucially, volunteer community magistrates, who deal with the majority of criminal cases, will do even more work.
A previous version of the plan, leaked to the BBC and the Times last week, was to abolish jury trials for most crimes punishable with up to five years in prison.
But David Lammy has backed away from the most radical proposals, announcing reforms in the Commons on Tuesday.
Lammy said the new system would dispose of cases five times faster than jury trials.
He said this was necessary because according to current projections the case load will reach 100,000 by 2028.
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