CAMPAIGNERS who have been protesting against plans to reduce the number of jury trails are cautiously celebrating the decision by prime minister Andy Burnham to overturn proposals put forward by his predecessor.

Sir Keir Starmer's government had suggested allowing judges in England and Wales to act independently on cases leading to a sentence of less than three years. This was in a bid to reduce a backlog caused by a number of factors – from Covid-related delays to a shortage of barristers and judges – that has left some people waiting for over a year to have their cases heard.

Oliver Baines, local coordinator for peaceful protest organisation Defend Our Juries, said he was “delighted that the 350-year right to a jury trial had been upheld”, but warned: “We might not be out of the woods yet.”

Mr Baines, who has previously led a march from Truro Cathedral to the city’s Crown Court, where protesters wore gags to represent the curtailment of jury trials, was especially concerned by proposed changes to magistrate responsibilities.

This includes a change to the defendant’s legal right to choose a trial by jury in the Crown Court, when a case could equally stay in the magistrates’s court.

“It would appear magistrates are going to have a greatly extended role in the judiciary,” he said. “That could mean jury trials are still limited, just not in the way we thought they would be.

“It’s a complicated state of affairs, and the devil is in the detail, but it looks like the government might be giving with one hand and taking away with the other.”

Asked whether he expected to continue protesting, Mr Baines replied: “I think we may well have to, as there are all sorts of other threats juries remain under, such as the right of juries to hear the whole of the evidence, and the right of defendants to put evidence to juries without the interference of a judge.

“That’s not to diminish the relief we feel that the jury trials themselves will not be abandoned. That’s a very important step. But we might well see the same ends achieved through different means.”