Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the estimated cost is of increasing capacity in the Magistrates’ Courts to meet the requirements set out in the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

Magistrates handle more than 90% of all criminal cases, completing around 1.5 million criminal cases each year. The estimated costs and benefits of the measures proposed in the Courts and Tribunals Bill are set out in the published Courts and Tribunals Bill (Structural Criminal Court Reform) Impact Assessment.

The Government is investing in magistrates’ court capacity and modernisation to ensure they are able to meet expected demand. We are increasing funded sitting days for magistrates’ courts – from 114,000 last year to 125,800 next year, rising to a target of 131,000 sitting days by 2028/29 – and investing in recruitment programmes to ensure we have sufficient magistrate, legal advisers, and District Judge capacity to support that increase..

On 24 September 2026 we launched our revamped multi-million pound magistrates’ recruitment campaign “You’ve got the makings of a magistrate” to encourage more people to consider becoming a magistrate. Alongside this, in 2025 we recruited 50 new Deputy District Judges, and identified a reserve list of 86 additional candidates, whose appointments are now underway. Since April 2025 we have appointed 166 more legal advisers and have a new campaign live now for 80 more. The Government has also increased the funding available for magistrates' training, in line with the Judicial College’s estimates for the additional resources required to support the training needs of a larger magistracy.