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  • 8 hours ago
Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy condemns the proposals by the government to drop jury trials for offences with a likely prison sentence of three years or less. Mr Timothy says the plans are "completely unacceptable and an attack on over 800 years of legal tradition in this country". Report by Kennedyl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
Transcript
00:00The attack on jury trials is completely unacceptable and an attack on more than 800 years of legal tradition in
00:07this country.
00:08It is the case that there are delays in the courts that need to be addressed.
00:13But yesterday, 10% of the Crown courts in the country weren't sitting.
00:17We need the courts to sit every day and for more hours and we need much more intensive casework as
00:24the courts handle the cases that are coming up.
00:27As we've seen in particular parts of the country like Liverpool where they've done a very good job.
00:32But attacking jury trials is not just wrong in principle, it won't work in terms of saving time.
00:39Because in the scheme that the government is creating with this legislation today, there will be new time pressures and
00:46new administrative burdens for judges and for the courts.
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