Baroness Mattinson (Lab)

My Lords, it is both an honour and a little intimidating to follow some of the brilliant speeches we have heard this afternoon, in particular the valedictory speech by the noble Lord, Lord Hennessy. He will be very much missed. I will talk briefly about the proposed reforms to jury service, which is a subject very dear to my heart. As an undergraduate law student back in the day, I wrote my final-year dissertation on the value of jury service to the English legal system. Back then, I was passionate about how the principle of jury service, the right to be judged by our fellow citizens, was justifiably a cornerstone of British justice and a powerful protection against state overreach. I am still passionate about those things. More recently, working in politics, I have also argued that the principle of legal juries could usefully be extended to wider policy-making through the introduction of citizens’ juries where fellow citizens deliberate, debate and judge policy. I think that would also be very useful. Frankly, you would go a long way to find somebody who was more of a champion of jury service—its principles and process—than I am, so it is strange to find myself here supporting proposals in this King’s Speech to reduce access to jury service. But support them I do, because our justice system today—unlike the justice system when I wrote my undergraduate thesis all those years ago—is in crisis. This Government have inherited a situation, after years of underfunding and neglect, in which some 80,000 cases are awaiting trial, bringing untold anguish to the victims of those crimes, who are often unable to move on with their lives. Many victims wait for years for justice, with 21,000 cases waiting more than a year. My noble friend the Minister has eloquently set out a series of measures designed at last to tackle this head-on and to address the backlog. I strongly support these proposals and believe that they are, as my noble friend the Minister has said, proportionate and sensible. They are a price worth paying to end the agonising and unacceptable weight that victims and their families—and those seeking to clear their names—have been forced to endure in recent years. They know better than most that justice delayed is justice denied. At a time when trust in politicians and politics is at an all-time low, we hear a lot about how Governments fail to tackle or take on the tough decisions, too often choosing instead the easy route, which is to kick the challenge into the long grass and, in doing so, prop up the failing status quo while the vulnerable live with the consequences of that broken system. I am proud and relieved that this Government are prepared to be bold—to grasp the nettle and put victims of crime first.