Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions Debate

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Department: Ministry of Justice

Trial by Jury: Proposed Restrictions

Ben Goldsborough Excerpts
Wednesday 9th July 2025

(2 days, 11 hours ago)

Commons Chamber
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Sarah Sackman Portrait Sarah Sackman
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The hon. Member raises an extremely helpful point, which is about how we can improve efficiency in our courts through the use of technology, including technology that is improving rapidly before our eyes. For example, the Ministry of Justice is piloting the use of AI technology in some of our tribunals for transcription. How could that be utilised and rolled out more widely across courts and tribunals? He is absolutely right, but Sir Brian and his team, to give them their credit, have worked incredibly fast to produce a detailed, careful and well-evidenced report today. He will continue with part 2 of his review. Our job in the Ministry of Justice, as we develop our policy thinking, will be to bring those two parts of the review together to improve our criminal justice system.

Ben Goldsborough Portrait Ben Goldsborough (South Norfolk) (Lab)
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Some may say we are old school in South Norfolk, but I call it common sense. Criminals should be punished and victims should get their day of justice. Simply hoping that more sitting days will fix the Crown court backlog is not realistic, so I urge the Minister to be radical and ensure that offenders are punished and victims get their day in court.

Kieran Mullan Portrait Dr Kieran Mullan (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)
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Has the hon. Member actually read it?