Photo credit: Lauren Hurley / No 10 Downing Street – Number 10 Flickr page
Commenting on today’s Government reshuffle, Tom Franklin, Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Association said:
“Congratulations to David Lammy on his appointment as Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary. David attended our conference back in 2021 when he was Shadow Justice Secretary and we look forward to working with him again, to accelerate the progress to fix the justice system that had been started by his predecessor Shabana Mahmood.
“Our members see first-hand the consequences of a justice system under severe strain, where short-term fixes have too often made things worse. There are no quick solutions – what is needed is a long-term plan – and so we have written to Mr Lammy today, to set out the eight key areas that we believe should be his department’s priorities:
- A whole-system approach, that ensures resources are properly balanced across the criminal justice system.
- Addressing staffing shortages, from court staff to probation officers to prison staff.
- Investment in a wider range of high-quality community sentencing options, that magistrates can have confidence in as alternatives to short custodial sentences.
- Empowering magistrates’ courts to take on greater work, to help reduce serious case backlogs in the Crown Court.
- Urgent investment in the court estate, much of which is dilapidated and often inaccessible to disabled magistrates and court users.
- Improving openness in the justice system, including more published performance data and reform of the Single Justice Procedure.
- Further increasing the diversity of the magistracy to better reflect the communities they serve and supporting those appointed from underrepresented groups.
- A review of magistrates’ expenses. The current scheme is no longer fit for purpose, requiring many magistrates to subsidise the justice system from their own pockets.
“We’d also like to congratulate Shabana Mahmood as she takes on her new role as Home Secretary. In her 14 months as Lord Chancellor, she commissioned reviews of both the criminal courts and sentencing, both of which have set the groundwork for the reform of the justice system which is sorely needed. We send her our best wishes for her new role.”
