Irvine puts forward new courts shake-up

The Lord Chancellor is today signalling a major overhaul of the courts system, with magistrates being given new powers to jail serious offenders.

Included among the proposals Lord Irvine is considering are:

? Ending the right to trial by jury in complex fraud cases, replacing jurors with experts such as accountants.

? Giving magistrates the power to jail offenders for up to one year, rather than the current six months.

? Judges and barristers no longer having to wear wigs in civil courts, but possibly retaining them for criminal courts.

? Bringing all the tribunals under one umbrella, meaning a big expansion of his department.

? A new system of sentence "discounts," encouraging defendants to plead guilty in return for a lighter sentence.

Lord Irvine's proposals are seen as an alternative to government plans to end the right to trial by jury for a string of smaller offences - plans which were defeated twice in the Lords.

But his idea of giving magistrates greater powers for sentencing could still remove up to 6,000 cases from the 28,000 a year that currently have a right to a jury trial.

The move is expected to come under attack from the legal profession and many peers who believe that the right to trial by jury is a fundamental right.

Lord Irvine's proposals are likely to form part of a White Paper this summer, amid signs that the Government is determined to shake up the criminal justice system. There will be a public consultation on whether wigs and court dress should be retained in some courts.