Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill

This group contains a range of proposals. Again, I preface my remarks by saying that they do not qualify our views about the Bill, which we do not want. After the preceding debate we are even more clear that the case for the Bill—that fraud trials need judges without juries—appears weaker, because the argument seems to be that long trials are a problem. That problem should be dealt with by procedural means, and many remedial steps are in train. However, if we are to improve the Bill, there are three proposals that my colleagues and I put before the House, and further proposals in the group from other colleagues. Our first proposal is that if an application for a trial without a jury is allowed to be made to a judge and approved by the Lord Chief Justice, it should be possible for it to be made by the prosecution or by the defence, and by any one of the defendants, if there are more than one. During the previous debate, the Solicitor-General commented that in Committee the Opposition had proposed that the exemption from jury trial for serious cases should be extended. We were arguing, as he knows, not that we want that to happen, but that if some serious fraud cases in a ring-fenced group of cases are to be heard by a judge alone, there is no logic in justice why both parties to the case—the prosecution and the defence—should not be able to apply for that. It cannot be a fair system if only one side can apply. It could be argued that it would usually be to the advantage of the prosecution to go before a judge alone, because judges are—I do not mean this pejoratively—hardened in dealing with such cases, whereas juries are not. Members of a jury are unlikely ever to have done a long or difficult case before, and unlikely ever to have to do a jury case again, because they are usually exempt from jury service after serving on a long or difficult case. Jurors therefore come fresh to the case and give it their particular attention, never having served on a jury before. Many defendants, those representing them and their witnesses might think the system was unfair if it allowed only the prosecution to put the case for going before a judge alone. They might ask why they should not have the same right. There might be cases where a defendant preferred the case to be tried by a judge rather than a jury. Apart from the situation that I mentioned earlier, I can think of only two examples, which are simplistic, in which there had been a great deal of press coverage before an arrest or a charge. If the defendant or one of the defendants was a woman and the judge was male, the woman might prefer to put her case to a mixed group of people, including women. Similarly, a black or minority ethnic defendant might prefer a jury to a white judge, male or female. However, there are some cases, usually those that have attracted publicity, where defendants might prefer to go before a judge. Such cases are fairly rare. I have not heard defendants make the case to me, or to us, by representation, for a judge trial rather than a jury trial.