End to juries for lesser offences 'can save £30m'
Scrapping the right to a jury trial for lesser offences that "clog up the courts" could save £30m a year in prosecutors' costs alone, the Government's victims' commissioner said yesterday.
Louise Casey said almost 70,000 cases which could be heard by magistrates were making up more than 40 per cent of the crown court's business every year, causing greater expense and leading to long delays.
And nearly two-thirds of defendants who opt to be tried in the crown court go on to plead guilty, leaving the taxpayer to pick up millions of pounds each year in costs, she said.
"We should not view the right to a jury trial as being so sacrosanct that its exercise should be at the cost of victims of serious crimes," she added.