Oral Answers to Questions

Caroline Dinenage Excerpts

Thursday 18th December 2025 Commons Chamber

The Solicitor General was asked—

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

1. What advice she has given the Government on the potential impact of removing jury trials on the rule of law.

[Mr Mark Francois (Rayleigh and Wickford) (Con)]

4. What advice she has given the Government on the potential impact of removing jury trials on the rule of law.

[The Solicitor General (Ellie Reeves)]

This Government inherited a justice system in crisis, with a record caseload of 80,000 criminal cases waiting to be heard in the Crown court. Doing nothing was not an option. Let me be clear: jury trials remain a cornerstone of our justice system, but justice delayed is justice denied. Too many victims are being let down and too many defendants are being denied a fair and timely trial due to the ongoing crisis in our courts. That is what the reforms are about.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage]

The Government have cancelled elections and are scrapping jury trials, and now we hear that they are limiting the right to appeal to a Crown court, despite the fact that such appeals have a 40% success rate. The Solicitor General talks about justice denied; surely, that is a case in point? Given that her job is to uphold the rule of law, would she push back against some of her colleagues’ more authoritarian tendencies?

[The Solicitor General]

Justice delayed is justice denied. The previous Conservative Government allowed this crisis to develop in our criminal courts, with rape victims waiting up to three years for their cases to be heard. On appeals, Sir Brian Leveson recommended a permission stage on appeal, which would mean that appeal claims with merit will have the opportunity to be heard.