Justice Secretary Alex Norris addresses jury trial cuts and prisoner early release

LIVERPOOL, England — Justice Secretary Alex Norris confirmed that a new Courts Bill will seek to address criticism of the Keir Starmer-era plan to scrap up to half of all jury trials in England and Wales.

Norris, who replaced David Lammy as justice secretary in July, told an upcoming episode of the “Politics at Sam and Anne’s” podcast that the new bill — heading for the Commons in October — will include “major structural reforms” to speed up court hearings. But he said critics of culling jury trials “had been listened to” since new Prime Minister Andy Burnham indicated in the summer that he would prefer an outcome which entailed “not reducing access to jury trial.”

Officials told POLITICO Sunday night that one solution may be a return to original recommendations by Justice Brian Leveson, who was asked by Norris’ predecessor Lammy to review the courts system in a bid to tackle a major backlog that is delaying cases.

Lammy went further than Leveson, pushing beyond his recommendation for judge-and-magistrate panels to replace juries in some cases and instead backing single-judge courts. The proposal raised concern among some lawmakers that a defining principle of the English justice system is under threat.

“We have heard the concerns about the balance between the speed [of the] justice system and people feel[ing] confident about the process,” Norris said Monday morning.

Early release

Norris has also been tasked with solving the hot-button issue of early release for prisoners, a Starmer-era bid to ease overcrowded jails. The justice secretary cited measures intended to reassure the public, including increased restriction zones for those released on bail for serious offences, and more sophisticated tagging of offenders.

But Norris also ruled out any changes to the early release of stalking and domestic violence perpetrators, with a major tranche of releases due to begin in October heavily criticized by victims’ and women’s rights groups.

“We would like to have gone further and kept more categories of offender in prison for longer, but we also have to have enough prison places in this country,” he said.

The bailing of sex offender Zafer Dogan back to the London address where his offences — which included making thousands of AI-generated paedophile images — took place unleashed fierce criticism last week from Mark Rowley, the London Met police chief. Rowley blasted a system in which “victims are left fearful” and criticized the “unfathomable decisions” of the justice system.

Norris said he has had “conversations” about the criticism with the London police chief.