2007Click here to view or download the motions for debate in Word or make a selection from the list below to view the motions for debate online.
1. Trials in Magistrates’ Courts
This Annual General Meeting believes that trials in magistrates’ courts should normally take place before a bench of three. Only in exceptional circumstances should a trial take place before a District Judge sitting alone.
Submitted by the Cheshire Branch
Proposer: Harry Mawdsley JP, Cheshire Branch
Seconder: John Bache JP, Cheshire Branch
CARRIED
2. Legal Advisers
This Annual General Meeting calls upon the government/HMCS to ensure that sufficient qualified legal advisers are available to enable magistrates to perform their judicial functions.
Submitted by the Inner London Branch
Proposer: Margaret Wilson JP, Inner London Branch
Seconder: Maggie Wilson JP, Leicestershire and Rutland Branch
CARRIED
This Annual General Meeting of the Magistrates' Association directs that the number of Council members from any one branch of the Association on the committees of Council (excluding the Board of Trustees) be restricted to one only until at least one representative from each branch has been included on the membership lists of the said committees.
LOST
Prosecution of children in care homes
This Annual General Meeting deplores the prosecution of so many ‘looked after’ children in private care homes for minor criminal offences which should be dealt with by disciplinary measures within the homes. The AGM urges the government to take appropriate action to reduce the number of these prosecutions.
CARRIED
Charter and Bye-Laws
That subject to the passing of the meeting of Resolution Two, the Association humbly petition Her Majesty in the attached terms for the grant of a Supplemental Charter in the form of the attached draft, subject to such alterations as Her Majesty in Council may require.
CARRIED
That subject to such alterations as the Lord of the Privy Council may require, and to the grant of the Supplemental Charter referred to in Resolution One, the attached new Bye-Laws be substituted for the Bye-Laws appearing in the Schedule to the current Royal Charter, with effect from the sealing of the said Supplemental Charter.
CARRIED
Recruitment and transfer of magistrates
Whilst appreciating that magistrates who move to a new area should be considered for transfer, this should not be to the detriment of new local candidates for appointment, who bring with them local knowledge. For this reason, this Annual General Meeting calls upon the Lord Chancellor to allow his local advisory committees, whilst giving serious consideration from those seeking to transfer, discretion to recommend appointments appropriate to the needs of the bench (and the local community).
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Transfer of cases from the youth to the family proceedings court
This Annual General Meeting calls for legislative changes to be made to enable the youth court to transfer cases, after suitable enquiries have been made, to the family proceedings court, where it is evident that there are overwhelming welfare issues to be addressed.
CARRIED
Specialist courts
This Annual General Meeting believes that the increase in the number of specialist courts is leading to an increase in wasted time for magistrates, and does not allow magistrates to maintain their all round competence.
LOST
Football banning orders
This Annual General Meeting calls upon the Government to reduce the minimum length of football banning orders from three years to as many months whilst leaving the maximum at five years as at present.
CARRIED by a small majority
Magistrates' time
This Annual General Meeting believes that the efficient use of lay magistrates' time should be utilised as a necessary indicator in the evaluation by the Lord Chancellor's Department of an efficient criminal justice system.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Sex for money review
This Annual General Meeting considers that current methods of regulating sex for money no longer have the support f the community and are thus ineffective and unenforceable, and urges the Government to initiate a wide ranging review.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Driving without insurance
This Annual General Meeting considers that the offence of driving without insurance should be imprisonable, thus enabling the court to use the full range of penalties available when the offence has been committed deliberately, and ultimately, to use imprisonment for persistent offenders.
CARRIED by a small majority
Community service for fine default
This Annual General Meeting proposes that a magistrates' court, when imposing a fine, should also determine and announce an appropriate number of hours of community service to be worked if the defendant does not pay, or fails to keep up his/her payments.
CARRIED by 99 votes against 84
Branch funding
This Annual General Meeting believes that the proportion of members' subscriptions allocated to branch funding to be inadequate to the vital role of branches in the democratic structure of the Association.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Children's Commissioner
This Annual General Meeting believes that, given the Government's commitment to ensuring that the interests of children remain paramount, a Children's Commissioner should be appointed.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Specialist Road Traffic Panels
This Annual General Meeting would resist any moves to create panels of specialist magistrates to deal with road traffic cases, whether such panels might be set up to deal with all road traffic matters or with specific cases such as those involving heavy goods vehicles.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Drugs and driving
This Annual General Meeting notes current concern over drug-taking and the current Government investigations into the subject. It welcomes further developments and refinements of roadside tests to identify the presence of illicit substances (as defined in the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971, schedule 1 and 2). It calls for legislation to strengthen the present laws relating to drugs and in particular:
that there be a specific offence of driving etc. with prohibited drugs in the body, with mandatory disqualification; and
that the presence of illicit drugs in the body be confirmed as prima facie evidence of the offence of illegal possession.
CARRIED by an overwhelming majority
Association's constitution
This Annual General Meeting calls for the constitution of the Association to be examined by a working party of Council with the specific aims of proposing changes that will ensure proportionate branch representation at the AGMs and that the Association's principal officer, a Chairman, shall be elected by the representatives of the branches at the AGMs; further that any associated matters arising from these changes are addressed together with a specific examination of the matter of introducing postal voting for motions put to AGMs — and a report to be prepared and brought to Council before 1 April 2000.
LOST
Funding for Branch events
This Annual General Meeting believes that central funding should be made available to assist the Magistrates' Association and its branches as providers and contributors to the continuing development and wider understanding of all magistrates.
LOST
Custody arrangements
This Annual General Meeting deplores the increasing tendency of chief constables to centralise their custody arrangements. This means that defendants in custody are being conveyed to police stations, often many miles from their arrest, which is inevitably leading to the police requesting that custody cases are heard at a centralised court. If this trend continues, it will further undermine the future of rural courthouses.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Family Panel work
This Annual General Meeting urges the Government to investigate the allocation of work between family panels and county courts bearing in mind the serious loss to the community of the magistrates' involvement and the increased burden on the taxpayer, if more and relatively simple cases are dealt with by county court judges.
CARRIED nem com
Sex Offenders Act 1997
This Annual General Meeting calls for the Sex Offenders Act 1997 to be amended so that a court has discretion to impose notification requirements under the Act where a person is convicted of an offence which is not stipulated in schedule 1 to the Act but where, because of the circumstances of the commission of the offences, the court thinks it appropriate to do so to prevent serious harm being caused to a member or members of the public.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Court closures
This Annual General Meeting calls for wider publicity and public consultation on the financial and social effects of closing a magistrates' court, particularly in view of the Government's commitment to local justice.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Magistrates in the Crown Court
This Annual General Meeting opposes any proposal to remove magistrates from sitting with judges in the Crown Court to sentence.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Local Criminal Justice Forum
This Annual General Meeting supports the proposal in the review of the Crown prosecution Service that there should be only one local criminal justice forum — and recommends that the magistrate member should be nominated by the Magistrates' Association with the authority to speak for local justices.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Membership of Magistrates' Courts Committees
This Annual General Meeting believes that the present selection method for members of magistrates' courts committees weakens the links between the MCC and benches and calls for a return to the system of direct election, by justices, of MCC members.
CARRIED by 168 votes to 149
Driving without insurance
This Annual General Meeting believes that the penalty for the offence of driving without insurance should be increased so that it becomes an imprisonable offence.
CARRIED by a substantial majority
Sentencing Guidelines
This Annual General Meeting believes that all magistrates on every bench should use the Association's Sentencing Guidelines so that a consistent approach is achieved throughout England and Wales.
CARRIED by a very substantial majority
Commission areas
This Annual General Meeting considers that to abolish commission areas would be to the detriment of our system of local justice.
CARRIED unanimously
Local Authority secure accommodation
This Annual General Meeting urges the Government top ensure an adequate provision of local authority secure accommodation so that no young people under 18 have to be remanded to prison.
CARRIED unanimously
