Fraud (Trials without a Jury) Bill

This group of new clauses is interesting. The new clauses overlap to some extent, but they deal with three broad issues, which I shall seek to address in turn: the right of a defendant in a serious fraud case to seek non-jury trial; safeguards against prejudice to defendants by reason of non-jury trial; and the right to make representations and to have them taken into account. Opposition Members raised in Committee the question of the right of a defendant to waive jury trial and the equality of arms argument, which has a lot of power. New clauses 9, 13 and—somewhat obliquely—14 make provision for defendants to apply. Under new clause 9, the defendant’s right would replace that of the prosecution to make an application, which would clearly be unacceptable to the Government. When the hon. Member for North Southwark and Bermondsey (Simon Hughes) explained his interpretation of that new clause, I was unsure whether he understood the implications of it—but if he did, perhaps he thought that I might not, but I do. Let me deal with the substance of the debate. There are strong arguments for allowing defendants to request a non-jury trial—to waive their right to trial by jury. The hon. Member for Beaconsfield (Mr. Grieve) asked a reasonable question: why do we give that right to the prosecution and not give it to the defence? As he knows, a general power of jury waiver was initially included in the Criminal Justice Bill 2003, although it was later removed following Opposition resistance in another place.