Do not remove trial by jury for certain cases
This petition gathered 10,478 signatures between 18 December 2025 and 18 June 2026, according to the Parliament petitions site. The Government responded on 29 June 2026.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Do not remove trial by jury for certain cases
The MoJ plans to remove the right to trial by jury for either-way cases with a likely sentence of three years or less. We believe it is an ancient right allowing us to be judged by our peers and this right must never be lost.
The Magna Carta (1215) states:
“No free man shall be taken or imprisoned … except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land”.
We believe that losing this right would be to break British Justice completely.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 29 June 2026; the petitions site lists the Ministry of Justice as responsible. Its summary:
More than 90% of criminal cases are already dealt with – fairly – in magistrates’ courts, without a jury. Under the government’s reforms, the most serious cases will continue to be heard by a jury.
The opening 379 words of the 552-word response:
Trial by jury is a long-standing and fundamental part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales, and the Government recognises the strength of feeling on this issue. Trial by jury will always be available for the most serious offences.
However, as Sir Brian Leveson highlighted in his Independent Review of the Criminal Courts, “no right to jury can be derived from Magna Carta” - there is no right to a jury trial in the English and Welsh statute books, only the right to a fair trial.
Article 40 of Magna Carta states that we must not “deny or delay right or justice.” The latest figures show that over 22,000 open cases in the Crown Court have been waiting a year or more. Behind the numbers are people waiting for justice – victims putting their lives on hold waiting for their case to come to trial, witnesses waiting to give evidence, and defendants, sometimes stuck on remand, seeking to clear their name.
Timeliness is an essential ingredient of fairness, and the fairness of the system is undermined by delays in the Crown Court. That is why this Government asked Sir Brian Leveson to make recommendations on how to modernise the system, ensure the courts can keep up with incoming demand and reduce the existing backlog of cases, and restore stability and confidence in the criminal courts.
Trial by jury is already reserved for the most serious offences - 3% of all criminal trial cases are currently heard by a jury. Less serious cases are effectively handled in the magistrates’ courts, where more than 90% of criminal cases are already dealt with – fairly – without a jury.
This approach reflects the principle that a jury trial is not always appropriate or proportionate for every case. The threshold for what offences should be heard by jury has always changed over time. For example, drink-driving offences were once heard by a jury but today, these cases are routinely dealt with in the magistrates’ courts without a jury. Our reforms do not seek to abolish jury trials. They seek to ensure that trial by jury is available for the cases where they are most appropriate, while improving the efficiency of all trial routes so cases progress more quickly through the courts.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions.json?state=with_response&page=3UK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
6e32107ad32440ef… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
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