The long-awaited consultation on changes to local justice areas and the administration of the magistracy, was launched today (Monday 31 March). Please read on to find out what the consultation covers and how you can ensure that your views are heard.
Please bookmark this page, as we will update it as the consultation, and our views on it, evolve.
What’s in the consultation?
The consultation document (read the PDF or HTML version) runs to 92 pages and has 32 questions for responders to consider. It proposes a number of changes, including:
- The structure for grouping magistrates’ courts (pages 13 to 18 of the consultation document). The consultation proposes to group magistrates’ courts into 58 ‘benches’, a reduction from the current number of 75 ‘local justice areas’ (LJA). There are detailed suggestions on how these benches will be formed. The MA will be looking closely at the size of these, their feasibility for magistrates, and whether the proposals enhance the principle of local justice.
- Changes to the deployment process (pages 21 to 30). The consultation suggests that there should be an ‘expectation’ that between 20-40% of a magistrate’s sittings should be not at their home court, within their bench. It also suggests that a reasonable journey time should be up to ’90 minutes each way, by car or public transport’. We will be looking at the implications of this for magistrates who may not have the time to travel further or would be out of pocket because of the expenses regime. We also want to consider this proposal’s impact on magistrate diversity.
- The role of bench chairs (pages 31 to 35). As well as reducing the number of bench chairs from 75 to 58 (to match the number of new ‘benches’), the consultation explores options that could help divide the workload for a bench chair. This could involve splitting the role into two, to focus on different work, or making more use of deputy bench chairs. We will be considering the best approach to provide support for bench chairs, and to ensure that individual magistrates get the cohesive support that they need.
- How leadership roles are appointed (pages 36 and 37). The consultation asks if the roles of Bench Chair, Deputy Bench Chair, Family Panel Chair, Youth Panel Chair, and Family/Youth Panel Deputy, should 1) continue to be election, 2) selection, or 3) if some of these roles should be elected, and others selected. The MA has a long-standing policy that local magistrates should be able to choose their local leadership, as a key way that their voice is heard. We will also be looking at leadership roles at regional and national level, which are not mentioned at all in the consultation, but they may be in a subsequent consultation due shortly.
- Training (pages 38 to 41). The consultation proposes to reduce the number of TAAACs (Training, Approvals, Authorisations and Appraisal Committees) from 45 to 14, with one for crime/youth and one for family in each judicial circuit and London. The consultation also asks if magistrate members of the TAAACs should be elected or selected. The MA will be considering whether the proposals go far enough in sorting out the structural problems that there currently are in delivering magistrate training.
What happens next?
The consultation period lasts for 12 weeks, until 23 June. The Ministry of Justice and Judicial Office, who are running the consultation, want to hear what magistrates think. They have assured us that it is a genuine consultation, with no preconceived conclusions.
The MA will make our own submission to the Judicial Office. We will be closely engaging with the Judicial Office and the Ministry of Justice and will continue to represent members’ views to them. To facilitate this, we will hold a meeting of the Council (on which every MA branch has a representative) during May.
Rest assured that we will be making the case that any changes need to preserve the many excellent attributes of the magistracy and that changes should only be implemented in partnership with magistrates.
The consultation closes on Monday 23 June 2025 and the official response to the consultation is due to be published in Autumn 2025.
Have your say
Both we and the senior judiciary would also like as many individual magistrates as possible – both MA members and non-members – to send their views to the consultation too. To respond personally, please respond online at https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/reform-of-local-justice-areas-consultation by 23 June 2025.
If you have any comments on the consultation document, we’d like to hear from you – you can email us at [email protected].
How to find out more
- After we have finished our review of the consultation document, we will email you again in a few weeks with our detailed thoughts and recommendations.
- We are running a webinar on the consultation, on Thursday 8 May at 6pm (repeated on Saturday 17 May at 9.30am), to discuss the key questions in the consultation. Click this link to find out more about the webinar on 8 May and book your place on it. And this link is to book on the repeat of the webinar on 17 May.
- Please keep an eye on this page, as we will update it as the consultation goes on. When we submit it, we’ll add our submission to the consultation to this page too.
- There will be an article about the consultation in the summer edition of Magistrate magazine, due for publication at the beginning of June.
