🛑 Truth Watch: Fast-Track Prosecutions Fueling Systemic Injustice
Originally reported The Justice Gap on 2025-07-21 14:53:00.
A decade after its introduction, the Single Justice Procedure (SJP)—designed to streamline minor offence cases—has come under fire for enabling widespread miscarriages of justice.
New research from Transform Justice exposes how this secretive system, which allows cases to be decided behind closed doors by a single, unelected magistrate, now accounts for over half of all criminal convictions in England and Wales.
While SJP convictions typically result in fines without a criminal record, the process is riddled with flaws:
- Defendants often receive no guidance on valid defences or whether intent matters.
- A staggering 73% of defendants don’t enter any plea—suggesting many never received notice of prosecution.
- Prosecutors aren’t required to prove that notices were received.
The report highlights the wrongful prosecution of 59,000 individuals for fare evasion by Northern Rail, and reveals that people with disabilities or serious illnesses are being criminalized for honest mistakes at an alarming scale.
Investigations by The Standard have already led to overturned convictions for vulnerable individuals wrongly penalized over unpaid household bills.
Despite its massive impact, the SJP has faced virtually no parliamentary scrutiny.
Thousands of cases are published outside the Common Platform, making them inaccessible to defendants, journalists, and researchers.
Prosecutors operating under the SJP remain opaque, with little to no public data or accountability.
Transform Justice warns that this lack of transparency has left lone campaigners and journalists to expose what they call a “systemic injustice.” Without reform, the SJP risks continuing to punish the vulnerable while shielding itself from oversight.
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