Andy Burnham appeared to lay the ground for a potential U-turn last week at an event in Sheffield, where he said: ‘I have my concerns about the plan to restrict jury trials, partly from my personal experience, particularly Hillsborough.
‘So I want to really look in detail at that proposal and my instincts are that we need to find ways of not reducing access to jury trial.’
Bar chair Kirsty Brimelow KC said: ‘Relying on a bit of my own Northern bluntness, it is encouraging if common sense is prevailing.
‘One of my first actions was to write to the prime minister urging him to back away from the jury reduction course of the previous administration.’
Former Lord Chancellor David Lammy’s proposals, set out in the Courts and Tribunals Bill, would restrict jury trials to cases where the defendant faces a sentence of at least three years.
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