Magistrate figures
Magistrate numbers are worse than was previously thought after an HR error resulted in a total being overstated by as much as 1,000.
Judicial diversity data published by the Ministry of Justice yesterday shows there are 13,177 magistrates in England and Wales. In April 2008, there were 29,419 magistrates.
However, a user guide on the statistics says previous total figures were overstated by as much as 1,000 ‘as a number of leavers had not been correctly removed from the HR system’. The error was discovered as a result of a data reconciliation exercise carried out this year.
John Bache, national chair of the Magistrates’ Association, urged the government to let magistrates sit beyond the age of 70 to address ‘this alarming and unsustainable slump in numbers’.
Yesterday’s statistics show that half of magistrates are aged 60 or over.
Bache said: ‘We are now facing a crisis in magistrate numbers. Even before the current coronavirus pandemic halted recruitment, the number of magistrates had halved in the last decade and there are now simply not enough magistrates to do the work that needs to be done.
