Lammy told to drop 'dangerous' plans to curtail jury trials and focus on filling empty courts with nearly 800 sitting days lost in April alone

By DAVID BARRETT, HOME AFFAIRS EDITOR Published: 17:00, 16 June 2026 | Updated: 17:04, 16 June 2026 Labour has been urged to drop its ‘dangerous’ plans to restrict jury trial as new figures showed courts stood empty for nearly 800 days in April alone. Official data from the Ministry of Justice revealed individual courtrooms went unused for 778 days across the month. The first day of the month saw the highest number of empty courtrooms, with 86. Across the system in England and Wales there are more than 500 courtrooms in the Crown courts which could be used. The Conservatives have urged ministers to bring as many as possible into operation to cut the Crown court backlog of more than 80,000 cases rather than restricting the historic right to trial by jury. Justice Secretary David Lammy has published controversial plans which will see thousands of trials a year which are currently heard by jury trial instead be tried by a judge sitting alone. Justice Secretary David Lammy has published controversial plans which will see thousands of trials a year heard by a judge sitting alone, despite courtrooms going unused In response to a parliamentary question from Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy, justice minister Sarah Sackman revealed between 41 and 86 courtrooms went unused on each day of April. The total did not include five days over the Easter holiday, when courts are closed. Shadow Justice Secretary Nick Timothy obtained data from the government showing nearly 800 potential sitting days went unused in April  Conservative frontbencher Mr Timothy said: ‘While David Lammy plans to restrict our ancient right to a jury trial, courts across the country are sitting empty for days at a time. ‘The Justice Committee was clear that there is little evidence restricting jury trials will save any court time. ‘Labour should drop their dangerous plans to end jury trials and ensure courts are operating at full capacity to clear the backlog.’ Ms Sackman said: ‘It would be extremely unusual to have 100 per cent courtroom utilisation in any jurisdiction, not least because the system needs to flex at short notice to meet unexpected capacity loss, cope with surges in demand, or accommodate overrunning trials and to allow for additional public and press access. ‘There is also a difference between system capacity and physical capacity. ‘Running courtrooms requires not just available rooms but also, for example judicial time, court staff, and sufficient numbers of barristers and solicitors. ‘We have invested a record £2.78billion in our courts and tribunals service in 2026/27, including uncapped sitting days in the Crown Court for 2026/27 so that it can run at maximum system capacity.’ Should the right to a jury trial ever be sacrificed to speed up justice, even if courts are sitting empty? What's your view?David LammyWalesConservatives Share or comment on this article: Lammy told to drop 'dangerous' plans to curtail jury trials and focus on filling empty courts with nearly 800 sitting days lost in April alone e-mail Add comment window.articleShortUrl = 'https://mol.im/a/15904149'; adverts.addTaboolaPosition({ position: "thumbnail", id: "taboola-below-article-thumbnails" }) adverts.addTaboolaPosition({ position: "afterArticle", id: "taboola-below-main-column" }) DM.later('bundle', function (){ DM.SHOUT = {}; DM.SHOUT.shoutChannels = '{"disabledMolShout":false,"disabledChannels":[]}'; DM.SHOUT.isOldArticle = false; }); DM.later('bundle', function (){ DM.has("reader-comments", "ReaderComments", { gplusClientId: '746589970956-e10ciaf67a1id9ggu75ph3ds0sthn7j6.apps.googleusercontent.com', total: 2, offset: 0, allowNewComments: true , moderated: false }); }); Comments 2 Share what you think The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. We’ll ask you to confirm this for your first post to Facebook. You can choose on each post whether you would like it to be posted to Facebook. Your details from Facebook will be used to provide you with tailored content, marketing and ads in line with our Privacy Policy.