Commenting on the review’s publication, Mark Beattie, national chair of the Magistrates‘ Association, said:
“Justice delayed is justice denied, and so we welcome the bold recommendations in Sir Brian Leveson’s review to alleviate the courts backlog, in particular to set-up a new Criminal Court Bench Division in the crown courts. Magistrates are ready and willing to support these and other initiatives aimed at reducing the pressure on crown courts. As unpaid members of the judiciary, their primary motivation is serving their local communities and, as they have in the past, they are ready to undertake any extra training that is needed to hear cases in the proposed new court.
“We urge the government to implement Leveson’s recommendations as soon as possible. Every day that they aren’t in place, is a day when victims, witnesses and defendants have to wait for justice.
“Magistrates are critical for our justice system. They handle over 90 per cent of criminal cases and without them, the system would quickly grind to a halt. But their capacity is not unlimited and, if the proposed Criminal Court Bench Division is implemented, there will need to be more magistrates – probably rising to over 20,000 from its current figure of 14,600: an increase of more than a third – with support to enable them to contribute effectively to the courts’ successful running, as well as to maintain capacity in the magistrates’ courts.
“To enable and support such a big increase – and to ensure that magistrates continue to be recruited from all walks of life, including working age people and those on lower incomes – in June we recommended a seven point plan to boost the recruitment and retention of magistrates, including a multi-year recruitment and retention strategy, overhauling the unfair and bureaucratic expenses system (which effectively penalises many magistrates, especially the self-employed and those with childcare or caring costs) and a Magistrates’ Volunteer Charter. These measures will be necessary, both to ensure that more people want to become magistrates, but also to enable those currently serving to continue to do so.”
