Clause 36 - Application by defendant for trial to be conducted without jury
Criminal Justice Bill
10:00 am
Mr Hilary Benn (Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Home Office; Leeds Central, Labour)
I feel a letter coming on. I shall try to answer the first of those points. It would clearly need to be included in the rules of court that the defendant should indicate his choice as early as possible in the process. It would be ridiculous to leave it until a later stage or until a jury trial had been organised. A common-sense approach suggests that the rules of court would need to cover that.