King's Speech 2026: Courts Modernisation Bill

Courts Modernisation Bill

“My Ministers will push forward with significant reforms to… the criminal justice
system”

● The justice system is in crisis. Despite the Government’s record investment
into criminal court capacity there is a record high and rising caseload. We
cannot leave victims – and those seeking to clear their name – waiting.
Justice delayed is justice denied. Without action, the situation will continue to
spiral far beyond the point of recovery.

● Sir Brian Leveson’s report set out a blueprint for much-needed reform of the
criminal courts. This Bill (formally titled the Courts and Tribunals Bill) is the
first step to putting that blueprint into law and will bring a neglected service
into the 21st century, ensuring timely and fair justice for all.

What does the Bill do?

● The Government is working hard to make the courts more efficient, including
investing record sums in the Crown Courts to empower them to take on as
much work and see as many cases as possible. But these steps alone are not
enough. Without reform, the Crown Court backlogs will continue to rise.

● The Bill will:

○ Remove the right of defendants to elect for a Crown Court trial in
cases which can be heard in either a Magistrates’ or a Crown
Court (triable either-way cases). This will streamline the criminal
courts allocation process by ensuring that decisions about jurisdiction
are made solely by the courts, so cases are heard in the most
appropriate venue according to their severity and complexity.

○ Extend magistrates’ court sentencing powers up to 18 months for
single and multiple triable-either-way offences, with the potential to
increase this to 24 months if necessary. This will mean more cases are
heard in the magistrates’ courts, freeing up Crown Court capacity.

○ Replace the automatic right to appeal against a conviction or
sentence in magistrates’ courts with a permission stage,
supporting victims in ensuring they do not have to experience the
trauma of a second trial at appeal. The Bill also introduces audio

86
 recording in magistrates’ courts, saving time and reducing the impact of
appeals on victims and witnesses.

○ Introduce new modes of trial by judge alone in defined
circumstances. Introducing a new tier of the Crown Court – the
‘Bench Division’ – to hear triable either-way cases likely to receive a
custodial sentence of three years or less, and suitably complex and
lengthy fraud and other financial cases by judge alone. This will enable
cases to be considered appropriately and ensure more serious cases
can be tried by jury.

○ Bring forward measures to prevent victims of sexual offences
being unfairly undermined in the court room. This includes clearer
statutory thresholds governing the admissibility of sexual behaviour
evidence and previous allegations of assault.

○ Introduce measures to strengthen and clarify the special
measures available to vulnerable and intimidated victims and
witnesses, to help them give their best evidence to the court.

○ Repeal the presumption of parental involvement to ensure courts
prioritise the child’s best interests and adopt an open-minded
approach, rather than starting from a presumption that parental
involvement will further the child’s welfare.

○ Reform the office of the Senior President of Tribunals, bringing
structural alignment with the courts under the unified leadership of the
Lady Chief Justice. This promotes flexibility, cross-deployment and
effective judicial leadership which can better support career
development, morale and recruitment.

Territorial extent and application

● The Bill will extend to the whole of the UK, with the majority of measures
applying to England and Wales only.

Key facts

● The Government’s modelling (as set out in the Bill’s Impact Assessment),
which has been independently verified, shows that the full package of
measures in this Bill will deliver time savings nearing 20 per cent - the
equivalent of around 27,000 sitting days – in 2028-29.

87
● Over 80,000 criminal cases are currently waiting to be heard in the
Crown Court. That is more than double the volume pre-Covid. Without
action, the caseload could reach over 200,000 by 2035. Some victims are
waiting years for justice – over 21,000 open cases have already been
waiting for more than a year.

● For the current financial year (2025-26), the Government is funding
unlimited sitting days so that the Crown Court can hear as many cases
as possible. In the last financial year (2024-25), the Government funded a
record 111,250 sitting days in the Crown Court, 5,000 more days than funded
in 2024 by the previous government.

● Current estimates are that there would need to be around 139,000 sitting
days to keep up with demand. That level of system capacity simply does not
exist.

● Cases are open at the Crown Court for 82 per cent longer than in 2019 -
160 days between October and December 2019 compared to 290 days over
the same period in 2025.

● In 2024, cases relating to ‘triable either way’ offences that were heard in
in magistrates’ courts were completed more than four times faster than
those heard in the Crown Court.

● Over 90 per cent of criminal cases are currently heard by magistrates’
courts, without a jury.

● Following these reforms, the Government expects that around
three-quarters of trials that proceed to the Crown Court will continue to
be heard by a jury. This means a change to less than 1.5 per cent of all
criminal trial cases.

● Sir Brian Leveson’s findings show that jury trials take twice as long now
as they did in 2000. He estimates that trials without a jury will reduce hearing
time by at least 20 per cent, which he considers to be a ‘conservative’
estimate. This assumption is consistent with international evidence. Data
from New South Wales, Australia, shows an average 16 per cent reduction in
trial length for judge-only trials, rising to around 29 per cent for complex
cases. Taken together, the 20 per cent figure is cautious, evidence-based, and
firmly mid-range.

● The amount of work the criminal courts have to process is increasing.
The number of arrests has risen by 10 per cent, and the number of cases
arriving at the Crown Court is up 18 per cent since 2019. This is due to

88
 increased police officer recruitment leading to a higher number of charges for
criminal offences.

● Criminal cases are becoming increasingly complex. For example, while
relatively recent forms of evidence (mobile phones, computers and DNA
analysis) have improved justice and fairness, they have also increased the
time that criminal trials take.

● The former Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, The Rt Hon Lord
Burnett of Maldon, KG, PC, DL said “Only radical change stands any
prospect of bringing the backlog within bounds. It is not fair on defendants,
complainants or witnesses for trials to come on years after the case entered
the courts. Delay of the sort we are now seeing undermines the rule of law.”

● The Victims’ Commissioner for England and Wales, Claire Waxman OBE,
said “A system that is crippled by endless delays and forces a rape survivor to
wait five or more years for their chance at justice is indefensible. We are at a
tipping point. If we do nothing, or not enough, victims will give up.”

89