Judiciary: Retirement

(asked on 4th June 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, for what reason it is proposed to average over a 10-year period the raising of the judicial mandatory retirement age from 70 to 75; and how that averaging is planned to be implemented.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 14th June 2021

The Impact Assessment and Equality Statement, published in 2020 as part of the Judicial Mandatory Retirement Age (MRA) consultation, outlined our assessment of the potential effects of raising the MRA. Analysis of retirement trends suggested that with an MRA of 75, the number of judges and non-legal members in post could be around 400 higher than if the MRA had remained at 70. For magistrates, this figure was 2,000. These estimates were calculated as an average over a 10-year period.

The government intends to legislate to raise the MRA to 75 through the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Bill, to be introduced shortly. When the MRA is changed to 75, it will immediately apply to all judicial office holders who are in office on the date that the legislative measure is commenced. The legislation will include a transitional provision to enable retired magistrates who are younger than the new MRA to apply to return to the bench, subject to business need.

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