Early day motion tabled by primary sponsor Robert Marshall-Andrews (Labour), on Wednesday, 19 October 2005, in the House of Commons. It is signed by 83 members in total.

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JURIES IN SERIOUS FRAUD TRIALS

That this House believes that the Government's plan to remove juries in serious fraud trials is misguided; notes that there is no evidence to suggest that it is juries who prolong trials; recognises that the most effective way of reducing the length of complex criminal trials is by utilising active case mangement, which is underlined by both the Criminal Procedure Rules and the Lord Chief Justice's Protocol for the Control and Management of Heavy Fraud and other Complex Criminal Cases; disagrees with the assumption that jurors are incapable of following the evidence when so often the key issue in a fraud trial is whether the defendant's conduct was dishonest or not, an issue which jurors, as ordinary citizens, are qualified to decide; and calls upon the Government to allow time for case management changes to have effect and to honour its promise to bring about any change only after consultation and by primary legislation rather than by seeking to bring section 43 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 and trial without a jury into effect.

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Secondary information

Type

Early day motion

Reference

807 

Session

2005-06

Other sponsors

Chris McCafferty

Elfyn Llwyd

Dominic Grieve

Mike Penning

David Heath

Subjects

Fraud Juries

Link

View this Early day motion on www.parliament.uk