Edna Brady: UK Correspondent on jury system changes to solve extensive case backlog

The UK Government has announced plans to restrict the right to a jury trial in England and Wales to solve a backlog of 80,000 cases.

Serious crimes like murder and rape will continue to be sent to jury trial, but minor crimes like shoplifting will be dealt with directly by a judge or magistrate. 

UK Correspondent Edna Brady has seen the need for reform first hand.

"I've spent three decades going to court cases all over the UK and it never has ceased to stagger me. The inefficiency, the delays, just how slow everything is," she told Heather du Plessis-Allan.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
In the Brady UK correspondence with us Hello, Inda.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Hello Heather, how are you right?

Speaker 1 (00:04):
I'm very well, thank you. So it's going to be
more judges for you with juries.

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Yes, So big big changes today to the criminal justice system.
Basically we've got a backlog of about eighty thousand cases.
That is how bad the criminal justice system is creaking along.
I've spent three decades going to court cases all over
the UK and it never has ceased to stagger me
the inefficiency, the delays, just how slow everything is. And

(00:33):
I think the government have reached a point now that
they've realized if they don't do something about this, that
backlog will hit one hundred thousand cases by the end
of the decade. So David Lammy is the Justice Secretary.
He is a lawyer by profession, Deputy Prime Minister as well,
and he will set out the plans for change today
and basically they're going to get rid of jurry trials

(00:55):
in as many cases as they can. So if you're
charged with murder or ray or a very very serious crime,
you will absolutely go to a jury trial. But for
someone caught shoplifting or stealing a phone in the street,
they're trying to just basically have them put in front
of a magistrate or a judge and dealt with as
quickly as possible.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yes, in how many cases for those lower leveled crimes
are they actually opting for juries?

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, what we get is a lot of repeat offenders
who are very well advised by solicitors and lawyers who
will teach them how to play the system. And you're
seeing people who will be cut red handed overwhelming evidence
and they will delay and delay, they'll plead not guilty,
and then the morning of a trial they'll plead guilty.

(01:40):
So what they're trying to do is basically get those
kind of low level offenders pushed through with just a
judge or a judge, helped by a couple of magistrates,
you know, just speeding up the whole process. But you're right,
there is we get, I think what they would call
a lot of repeat customers in the criminal just system.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
Yeah, I see what's going on here. Okay, Now, the
junior doctors, they's called a strike just before Christmas? Have they?

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Yes? And the government, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting, keep
an eye on that name. In twenty twenty six because
he wants to be Prime Minister. The Health Secretary has
described these junior doctors as playing the Grinch. So a
five day strike called for December seventeenth. They will walk out,
every single junior doctor in England and Wales. They will
walk out on the seventeenth and they will not return

(02:27):
to working until seven am on the twenty second of December.
And the health system is creaking right now. We've had
a really bad strain of flu the last few weeks,
a lot of respiratory illness this time of the year.
Junior doctors, there's no sympathy for them this time around.
They got a monster pay rise August last year after
labor came in and everyone said to Keir Starmer, right,

(02:49):
you've given into them too soon. They will come back
for more, and sure enough that's what's happened.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Ye Hey, how in teens do you reckon?

Speaker 2 (02:57):
The security is.

Speaker 1 (02:58):
Going to be in Germany at these Chris markets, so.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
They've started preparations for them, and obviously it's a huge
highlight in Europe the Christmas market tradition. Everyone would love
to go to Germany and have some of their beautiful
glue vine and some of their curry vorse sausages, and
do some Christmas shopping in the cold and the lights,
and it's stunning. However, we've seen repeated attacks in recent years.

(03:24):
Town of Magdeburg last year a guy got into a
very high speed BMW. The attack lasted one minute and
in that time he killed six people and injured over
three hundred. So what they're doing this week in a
lot of German towns and cities putting in extra ballards,
street furniture, more concrete barriers, basically fort knoxing up Christmas

(03:48):
markets around Germany. It's desperately sad that it's come to this,
but I think they're taking every precaution possible because you
just don't know where the next lunatic is going to strike.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Ye, it's fair enough. Hi, thank you very much. INDO
As always into Radio UK Correspondence.

Speaker 2 (04:03):
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