Building on coverage secured earlier in the year, in March the Magistrates’ Association (MA) supported several of its members to appear on a range of national and regional TV and radio programmes to talk about their experiences of volunteering as magistrates.
With media interest in the government’s £1 million drive to recruit 4,000 new magistrates across England and Wales—launched in January—enduring, the MA was pleased to be able to contribute to raising awareness of the immense contribution magistrates make to their local communities and of the need to increase the diversity of the magistracy.
Among others, our members spoke compellingly to: BBC 1 (Morning Live), BBC Look East, BBC Radio Nottingham, BFBS (Forces Radio), Gem 106, ITV News, ITV News Central and ITV News Meridian.
Their passion for the role shone through and we were proud to hear them encouraging people from all walks of life to follow in their footsteps.
One of our core roles as the only independent voice of the magistracy is to promote the magistracy and our members—including the chairs of our Black, Asian and minority ethnic and LGBT+ networks, Jacqui MacDonald-Davis and Tom Quarton-Manuel—did this incredibly adeptly.
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