Leveson's diversion package: accepted in December 2025, absent from the Courts and Tribunals Bill
The government's December 2025 response accepted Leveson Part 1 as a 'blueprint', but the Courts and Tribunals Bill (introduced 25 February 2026) legislates only the structural measures: removing the right to elect jury trial, the judge-alone Crown Court Bench Division, an appeals permission stage, and 24-month magistrates' sentencing powers. Leveson's recommendations 1–10 on out-of-court resolutions, rehabilitation and health-intervention diversion have no legislative vehicle or ring-fenced funding, and the Lord Chancellor did not adopt his early-guilty-plea incentive reforms (noted at second reading, 10 March 2026). The Bar Council tracker and Justice Committee both flag that the demand-reduction half of the package, which Leveson said was essential to make the structural half work, is unfunded. The Bill also departs from Leveson: he recommended restricting (not removing) election, a judge-plus-two-magistrates Bench Division, and keeping magistrates' powers at 12 months.
Leveson designed a package: structural reform plus diversion to cut demand. Government legislated the contentious structural half while leaving demand reduction unfunded, so the record ~80,200-case backlog is unlikely to fall as modelled; meanwhile jury trial rights are curtailed on the strength of a package that is only half-implemented.
A statutory national framework for out-of-court resolutions (via amendment to the Courts and Tribunals Bill or secondary legislation under the PCSC Act 2022 two-tier framework), a ring-fenced multi-year diversion fund at the next spending review, and a published recommendation-by-recommendation implementation tracker with funding status.
// State-led: Instrument: Courts and Tribunals Bill amendment or PCSC 2022 secondary legislation plus spending-review fund; civil-society tracker is pressure, not the fill.
the Courts and Tribunals Bill is in Parliament now legislating the contentious structural half while the demand-cutting diversion package it depends on stays unfunded and without a vehicle.