Ministers may force through act to curb jury fraud trials

The government is poised to use the Parliament Act 1949 to force through a law allowing the most complex fraud cases to be tried without a jury.

Ministers are expected to reintroduce a bill providing for fraud trials to be tried by a judge alone after three previous attempts to legislate failed, and to invoke the Parliament Act, if necessary, to get it on the statute book.

The act, sometimes called parliament's "nuclear deterrent", gives the Commons power to bring in legislation despite opposition from the House of Lords.