Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will take steps to establish a multi-year recruitment and retention strategy for the magistracy.

In light of the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts and the Sentencing Review, Ministers are considering the implications for the magistracy, including how best to ensure sufficient capacity in magistrates’ courts to meet both current and future demand and how we can best give deserved recognition to the long term service that many of our existing magistrates provide.

We will set out further details of our approach following the publication of the Government response to the Independent Review of the Criminal Courts.