Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate she has made of the number of unfilled magistrate vacancies on 9 July 2025.

We do not have a set number of magistrate vacancies. Magistrate recruitment targets are set on an annual basis covering 1 April to 31 March. As of 1 April 2025, there were 14,636 magistrates in post. We are aiming to recruit around 2,000 magistrates in 2025/26, and we are currently considering our ongoing resourcing needs in light of the planned reform of the criminal courts.