The Government believes that trial by jury is not the best way of dealing with all fraud cases.
There is already provision, in section 43 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003, for serious and complex fraud trials to take place without a jury, if the Lord Chief Justice agrees.
But section 43 can be commenced only by an affirmative resolution of both Houses of Parliament which the Government is unable to obtain.
The Bill will remove that requirement for an affirmative resolution, as well as ensuring that applications for non-jury trial (and the trial itself, if the application is successful) would be heard by a High Court judge or by a Crown Court judge nominated for that purpose.
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