Every day, the Magistrates’ Association (MA) advocates on behalf of its members, and we know from our members’ surveys that you feel this work is important. Our national officers, together with our five policy committees and supported by our small staff team, cover issues that matter most to our members, and represent the organisation on external bodies. Since our last advocacy update in August, we have prioritised the following eight issues.
1. Single Justice Procedure review
Earlier this month, Heidi Alexander MP, Courts Minister, announced that she intends to make the notice sent to defendants clearer, and to discuss with Single Justice Procedure (SJP) prosecutors ways to ensure they consider the public interest before they proceed with prosecutions.
This follows our long-standing efforts to drive SJP reform. In March, we published 12 recommendations to improve its transparency, fairness, and operation. Key among our recommendations are making it a requirement for prosecutors to review all pleas and mitigation from defendants before cases are heard by magistrates, and improving communication, through a review of the paperwork sent to defendants, to make it simpler and easier to understand.
We will continue urging the government to go further by increasing transparency in SJP proceedings. This includes enabling accredited journalists to observe SJP sittings and 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.
2. The Times Crime and Justice Commission: MA gives oral evidence
This month, our chief executive, Tom Franklin, gave evidence to the Times Crime and Justice Commission. The Commission is a year-long initiative gathering insights from criminal justice experts and is interested in whole-system solutions to the criminal justice system.
Tom highlighted the essential role of magistrates and emphasised the need for magistrate input amid ongoing changes. He also advocated for a whole-system approach to criminal justice reform and a sustained investment.
Much of what Tom told the Times Commission is in this statement from July, which summarises our six key asks of the government.
3. Letter to the President of the Family Division on public law allocation
We have written to the President of the Family Division (PFD) on inconsistencies in public law allocation across England and Wales. The Family Magistrates Oversight Group (FMOG) has set an expectation that 16 per cent of public law work is completed by magistrates. The MA is clear: family magistrates are trained and capable of doing this work, and the FMOG expectation should be met in all regions. Despite this, we know of 14 designated family panel areas where levels of public law work being done are significantly below the 16 per cent expectation, with some areas doing no public law work at all. This has a negative effect on magistrate morale and wastes the contribution that magistrates could make in this area. We worked with branch members in affected areas to write this letter and we are pleased that the PFD has raised the issue with FMOG and family presiding justices as a result.
4. Addressing racial disparity in the youth justice system
The Youth Justice Board recently published work commissioned from the charity Revolving Doors that examines good and promising practice examples that address racial disparity in the youth justice system. The report demonstrates the range of different initiatives in this sector, and we are pleased that the MA features in this report with our forthcoming disparity toolkit. This toolkit will be aimed at supporting magistrates in mitigating disparate outcomes by developing a complete information picture of the child. Keep an eye out – we’ll be publishing this soon!
5. Response to the Autumn Budget
Last month, we responded to the Autumn Budget through a media statement, with our national chair, Mark Beattie, calling it a “missed opportunity” to go further. Despite the extra money announced, we stressed that all parts of the justice system including courts need considerable new investment and identified four key areas: a decade-long programme to modernise court buildings; a ten per cent increase in magistrates’ court sitting days to reduce case backlogs; additional funding for court legal adviser recruitment and salaries; and a reformed, fairer expenses system for magistrates.
6. Legal adviser numbers
It is clear that legal adviser numbers have been mismanaged for some time now, with too many in training and too many moving on to higher-paid roles – often in other government departments – soon after qualification. The resulting shortage of legal advisers causes court cancellations and immense frustration for victims, witnesses, defendants, not to mention magistrates and court staff.
In October, we posed 20 questions in a letter to senior civil servants as part of our continued advocacy on this issue. Answers to these questions will inform our ongoing advocacy work and will help to quantify the scale of the problem. Tom Franklin also raised this issue during his evidence to the Times Commission, and it is one we continue to pursue on behalf of members.
7. Relationship building
In October, our national chair, Mark Beattie, represented magistrates at a roundtable hosted by Courts Minister Heidi Alexander, alongside other key legal figures and organisations. The minister is committed to understanding the issues raised and has assured us that dialogue will remain open.
In the same month, Mark and Tom Franklin met Lord Ponsonby, the new minister for magistrates. They discussed a wide range of issues that are important to our members, and it was a very useful and constructive first meeting with this new minister.
We also had our first meeting with the new Senior Presiding Judge, Lord Justice Nicholas Green, who only took over the role from Lord Justice Edis on 1 October. The Senior Presiding Judge has responsibility for magistrates and acts as a general point of contact and communication between the judiciary, the courts and government departments. Lord Ponsonby and Lord Justice Green are both scheduled to speak at our annual members’ conference on 23 November.
8. Contribution to House of Lords inquiry on interpreters
In September, we submitted written evidence to the House of Lords Public Services Committee on interpreting and translation services in courts, sharing insights gathered from our members. Magistrates reported significant challenges, including frequent booking failures, incorrect language assignments, and limited interpreter availability which led to delays, adjournments, and misunderstandings.
These issues undermine the quality of justice and often result in unrepresented or unsupported defendants facing language barriers, especially those speaking rare dialects.
Our recommendations to the House of Lords include improving booking processes, expanding interpreter training, enhancing remote technology for accuracy, and exploring the cautious use of AI in interpretation. We also advocated for better interpreter recruitment and training standards, addressing rarer languages, and providing flexibility to support defendants and court staff alike.
You can read our submission here.
