Responding to today’s ruling by the Chief Magistrate on the “unlawful” use of the Single Justice Procedure for up to 75,000 rail fare evasion cases, Tom Franklin, the Chief Executive of the Magistrates’ Association, said:
“This ruling has big implications for tens of thousands of people, and there are serious questions that the prosecuting authorities – in this case the train companies – need to answer as to how this was allowed to happen.
“This supports our call for reform of the Single Justice Procedure (SJP). For some time now, the Magistrates’ Association has been calling for it to be more open and transparent, consistent, and fairer particularly for more vulnerable defendants such as those who are elderly or infirm.
“While many aspects of the SJP work well, we would like to see measures put in place to protect the most vulnerable defendants. Our recommendations include making it a requirement that prosecutors see all pleas and mitigations from defendants before the cases are heard by the magistrate, and reviewing and improving the training that magistrates receive before they can sit on SJP cases. Boosting transparency is needed by publishing more data on the SJP, such as how many defendants plead guilty, how many make no pleas, and how many ask to come to court, nationally and broken down by region. The government should also make provision for SJP sittings to be observable by accredited journalists.”
