\n<\/p>\n
A potential government U-turn on changes to jury trials risks breaking a justice system on the brink of collapse, the new victims\u2019 commissioner for England and Wales has warned.<\/p>\n
The justice secretary, David Lammy, must face down MPs and the legal profession over proposals to reduce the number of jury trials or \u201cwe will not have victims coming into the system\u201d, said Claire Waxman.<\/p>\n
Waxman said she was \u201cdisappointed\u201d that the changes to jury trials had generated more \u201cnoise\u201d than other plans to release prisoners recalled to prison early and abolish most short prison sentences. Changing in the sentencing bill risked undermining a key Labour manifesto promise to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, she argued.<\/p>\n
Waxman said she understood the strength of feeling in the legal profession over jury trials, but said \u201can obstructive and unhelpful\u201d discourse could plunge the system into deeper chaos.<\/p>\n
On Monday, the Guardian reported that proposals to limit jury trials could be watered down after a backlash, but Waxman said any U-turn risked collapsing the system and she \u201cdidn\u2019t think the government could do it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Waxman added that critics could \u201cshout and scream\u201d and hope for a U-turn, but there was no other viable proposal to drastically reduce the backlog. \u201cIf you row back on this, we will see a backlog of 100,000, of 125,000,\u201d she said. \u201cThat is a public safety issue. Victims will not stay six, seven years in the justice process. The justice system will no longer function, it will collapse, it is already on the brink.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lammy is understood to be pushing ahead with plans \u2013 proposed by Sir Brian Leveson \u2013 in their current form, including proposals for a new criminal court where judges will hear cases on their own, magistrates-only hearings for offences that carry a maximum sentence of two years or less, and judge-only trials for complex fraud cases.<\/p>\n
Waxman added that court backlogs, along with crumbling court rooms and trials adjourned on the day they were due to be heard were having a \u201cdevastating impact\u201d on victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen a victim tells you that the delays have pushed them to consider taking their own life, you have to wake up and think this can\u2019t continue,\u201d she said. \u201cThis isn\u2019t humane. We have to do something differently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victims\u2019 commissioner said crumbling courts had leaks, problems with heating and witness rooms that had left her feeling \u201cembarrassed\u201d. Asked if she was proud of the justice system in England and Wales, she said: \u201cNo. I\u2019m proud of the people who work in it. Many are working beyond what they\u2019re being paid for, but they\u2019re doing it because they care so deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waxman also argued that the sentencing bill, which aims to reduce dire prison overcrowding by rereleasing the vast majority of offenders recalled to prison after 56 days and scrapping of most short prison sentences, would probably result in the government failing to lower the rate of femicide in the UK if safeguards were not put in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we are releasing more people from prison, or we suspend short sentences, that does work against halving violence against women and girls. That\u2019s a reality. It does undermine it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Waxman said she was seeking urgent clarification from ministers this week over fears that plans to radically reform sentencing could leave victims of domestic abuse in danger.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are measures in that bill that really alarm me from a public safety perspective,\u201d she said. \u201cThat bill has not been brought forward with public safety at the heart of it. It\u2019s been brought forward because [the government] had no choice [\u2026] There are risks in that bill to public safety, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n
Waxman, herself a victim of stalking over a two-decade period, said short sentences also provided a \u201ccritical window of respite\u201d for domestic abuse and stalking victims. The government has said the bill will contain exemptions so a judge can give a short sentence if there is a breach of a court order or a risk of harm.<\/p>\n
Waxman said she had seen \u201cfirst-hand\u201d the commitment of the prime minister, Keir Starmer, to tackle violence against women and girls and said the government had inherited crises in prisons and courts, but she echoed the concerns of campaigners, who warned that the government\u2019s VAWG, which was launched in December, was \u201cseriously underfunded\u201d.<\/p>\n
Her work was also being hampered by the small size of the victims\u2019 commissioner\u2019s office, which would struggle to carry out its statutory powers to make sure agencies such as the police and Crown Prosecution Service were providing legal rights to survivors of crime set out in the victims code, she said.<\/p>\n
Asked if there was enough money in the strategy, which is focused on prevention and tackling misogyny in boys, Waxman said: \u201cNot that I can see, and that\u2019s why I want to meet with ministers. Funding will be critical to deliver this ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A potential government U-turn on changes to jury trials risks breaking a justice system on the brink of collapse, the new victims\u2019 commissioner for England and Wales has warned. The justice secretary, David Lammy, must face down MPs and the legal profession over proposals to reduce the number of jury trials or \u201cwe will not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41616,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[5032,4516,311,1846,2282,3340,4022,14051,2933,123,1060],"class_list":{"0":"post-41615","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-crime-justice","8":"tag-commissioner","9":"tag-criminal","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-jury","12":"tag-justice","13":"tag-limiting","14":"tag-trials","15":"tag-uturn","16":"tag-victims","17":"tag-wales","18":"tag-warns"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41616"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}