Overview
- The Ministry of Justice opened a national campaign to enlist roughly 2,000 new volunteer magistrates in the next financial year across England and Wales.
- More than 2,000 magistrates have been trained since 2022, with new recruits sought for criminal, youth, and certain civil and family cases.
- Magistrates are unpaid volunteers expected to sit at least 13 days a year and are supported in court by specialist legal advisers.
- The recruitment push links to proposals to increase magistrates’ custodial sentencing powers to 18 months, with a possible extension to 24 months, to keep more cases out of crown courts.
- The Magistrates’ Association welcomed the move but called for more resources, while critics including 38 Labour MPs and shadow justice minister Kieran Mullan oppose plans to curb jury trials for cases likely to draw sentences of three years or less.