Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of his proposed changes to the right to a jury trial on the rule of law.

The Government will publish a full impact assessment of our proposed justice reforms in the usual way with bill introduction. That will include an assessment of the impact of the proposed changes in the threshold for who can access a jury trial. Currently, over 90% of criminal cases are already heard by magistrates, without a jury. These proposals make a modest change to the threshold. All indictable only offences and any offence with a likely sentence over three years will continue to receive a jury trial.