On 4 October 2026, Justice Secretary Alex Norris said the government will amend the Courts and Tribunals Bill to drop plans for a wider expansion of judge-only criminal trials, while speeding up the rest of its court reform package. The legislation applies to England and Wales and returns to the House of Commons on 13 October 2026, making this a significant change shortly before the next stage of scrutiny. According to the Ministry of Justice, the stated aim is to reduce the record Crown Court backlog and shorten waits for victims. (gov.uk)
The key shift is what has been removed. When the bill was introduced on 25 February 2026, the Ministry of Justice proposed a new Crown Court 'Bench Division' for certain triable-either-way cases, to be heard by a judge alone where a sentence of three years or less was likely. The 4 October announcement reverses that part of the plan after ministers said they had heard strong objections to expanding judge-only trials in the Crown Court. In policy terms, that keeps jury trial in place for the more serious cases that would otherwise have moved into that new route. (gov.uk)
The retreat is not total. The government is still proposing judge-alone hearings for suitably technical and lengthy fraud and financial cases, a narrower exception that ministers say will reduce the burden created by specialist trials that can run for months. The wider bill also retains changes to case allocation and criminal appeals which are designed to move lower-level matters through the system more quickly. (gov.uk) One of those changes would give courts, rather than defendants, the final say on where certain triable-either-way cases are heard. Another would replace the automatic right of appeal from the magistrates' court to the Crown Court with a permission stage and a more limited hearing on the issues granted leave. For defence practitioners and court administrators, those are changes to how cases enter, move through and leave the system. (gov.uk)
The bill also keeps the mechanism for extending magistrates' sentencing powers. According to the government's bill paper, those powers could be increased by secondary legislation in six-month increments up to 18 months' imprisonment for a single either-way offence and 24 months for multiple either-way offences. The Ministry of Justice presents that as a way to resolve more cases outside the Crown Court and relieve pressure on its lists. (gov.uk)
Operational reform is the second strand of the package. Courts minister Sarah Sackman KC said the government's response to Lord Leveson's review will set out further efficiency measures, including AI support for case listing, wider use of virtual hearings and steps to improve defendant attendance at court. The Ministry of Justice also said millions will be invested in technology and that judges will receive the resources needed to hear more cases, though the announcement did not break down that spending. (gov.uk)
The pressure for action is clear in the backlog data. The Ministry of Justice said nearly 81,000 Crown Court cases are waiting to be heard, and that almost a third have been outstanding for a year or longer. That helps explain why ministers are pairing constitutional decisions about mode of trial with administrative measures on listing, attendance and court capacity. (gov.uk) For victims, defendants and witnesses, the immediate test will be whether those measures bring hearings forward in practice rather than simply alter procedure on paper. (gov.uk)
There is also an equalities safeguard. When the bill returns, the government says it will add a statutory commitment to consider the effects of the structural reforms on ethnic minorities and people of different backgrounds, led by an independent reviewer. Given the bill's proposed changes to venue, appeal routes and judge-alone hearings for some financial cases, that assessment will be a relevant part of the next parliamentary debate. (gov.uk) The next formal steps are close. The government says its full response to both parts of Lord Leveson's review will be published in the coming weeks, and MPs will resume consideration of the bill on 13 October 2026. The revised package is now easier to define: ministers have abandoned the broadest expansion of judge-alone trials, but are pressing ahead with the rest of the restructuring aimed at cutting delays in the criminal courts. (gov.uk)