Median age ~58 years
Mean age ~59 years
% aged ≥50 81 %
Perhaps the onerous requirement to sign up to an annual unpaid 26 half day sitting commitment in addition to training days is a prime reason especially when the MOJ`s almost fanatical diversity programme strives to recruit younger more "diverse" and perhaps lower income magistrates to "reflect the communities they serve". To that end I have endeavoured to extract from official publications how many magistrates actually are sacked for failing the above sitting requirement and to note if there is any prevailing trend.
The latest J.P. to fall at this hurdle was disclosed yesterday as Mr Imtiaz Ahmed JP whose fate will be published in next year`s statistics. To quote from the official announcement; "removed for failing sittings requirement." Recent years saw results as follows for that same failure:-
For year 2025/26
Removal: 0
Reprimand: 2
Formal warning: 0
Formal advice: 0
For year 2024/2025
Removal: 6
Reprimand: 0
Formal warning: 1
Formal advice: 0
For 2023/24
Removal: 1
Reprimand: 1
Formal warning: 0
Formal advice: 0
For years 2021- 2023 there are no on line detailed figures now available. Whether year 2024/25 is a statistical outlier is beyond my capacity to interpret. The JCIO’s formal annual reports contain aggregate totals but rarely list every individual and many earlier statements are no longer on the website due to publication period limits. However it is my experience that many of those under sitting are dealt with informally by the courts` Deputy Justices Clerks who are in day to day control of magistrates courts.
To put these numbers in perspective in the five years since 2021 the numbers of magistrates has been fairly stable rising from 14,200 to 14,636 in 2025. It can be seen from the above that removals for under sitting are tiny and impossible to relate to any particular factor. 2025 was a spike and perhaps suggests policy emphasis or enforcement tightening.
An educated assessment of the consistent failure to recruit new magistrates could be a cause of concern to the MOJ especially as its proposals to increase the workload to relieve crown courts of their backlog comes under increasing scrutiny. 68% of Judges are aged 50 or over. Such a position requires years of experience in life as well as in affairs legal. The fixation in the MOJ with "local" justice is becoming increasingly distant from reality. District Judges [MC] are appointed on ability; not that they are paying council tax for living a bus ride from the court in which they preside over function in addition to fact finding and sentence. Archived materials suggest that around 10% of cases at magistrates courts are heard by DJs or Deputies. It seems logical to conclude that the current cheaper costs of lay magistrates cf DJs might soon have to be revisited and those costs accepted when the reality is that the backlog at magistrates courts midway through 2025 was around 310,000 to 361,000 unresolved cases. It has been estimated that if no additional cases entered the court system the current magistrates courts` backlog could be cleared in less than three months at the existing processing capacity. Of course that`s a fairy tale. There are currently about 1.3 million magistrates’ cases entering the system annually and timeliness to clear cases is rising. At more than six months, average times from offence to completion are now higher than pre‑pandemic. Extra sitting days and other reforms are intended to speed up justice overall but there is no officially published target for how long it will take once or if reforms are implemented. In simple terms there is an uncontrolable rise in the backlog unless what to some will be unwelcome innovations and/or changes are made. These could include:-
A. a major increase in the number of lay magistrates
B. an increase in their sitting requirements
C. a major increase in the number of DJs and Deputies or
D. revolutionary changes in the provision of diversionary availabilities.
It is difficult in the light of recent failed recruitment efforts as above to think A. is realistic. B. is possible but it would mean MOJ abandoning its flagship "diversity" policy and swallowing the reality that an older higher income strata of society might be willing to consider appointment. C. would be a realistic option if DJs would accept that they could run the court without the assistance of a legal advisor or at the very least accepting a lower grade lower paid clerk. D. is "in the clouds" thinking.
Since 2010 [even since 1997] the courts have been financially emasculated. Chickens are now home and roosting in their entrails. The current "proposals" will do nothing to change the situation. Cassandra has appeared on this site [and others similar] for many years. Many warnings were given by those on the inside as well as those offering advice from the periphery. The collapse, and that is what it is, of our once inernationally renowned justice system is now impervious to meaningful long lasting improvement. Government has so many other problems in future only rouble billionaires and their estranged ex wives, disinherited relatives of global AI innovators and others similar will consider London as the legal jurisdiction to decide their future.
For year 2025/26
Removal: 0
Reprimand: 2
Formal warning: 0
Formal advice: 0
For year 2024/2025
Removal: 6
Reprimand: 0
Formal warning: 1
Formal advice: 0
For 2023/24
Removal: 1
Reprimand: 1
Formal warning: 0
Formal advice: 0
For years 2021- 2023 there are no on line detailed figures now available. Whether year 2024/25 is a statistical outlier is beyond my capacity to interpret. The JCIO’s formal annual reports contain aggregate totals but rarely list every individual and many earlier statements are no longer on the website due to publication period limits. However it is my experience that many of those under sitting are dealt with informally by the courts` Deputy Justices Clerks who are in day to day control of magistrates courts.
To put these numbers in perspective in the five years since 2021 the numbers of magistrates has been fairly stable rising from 14,200 to 14,636 in 2025. It can be seen from the above that removals for under sitting are tiny and impossible to relate to any particular factor. 2025 was a spike and perhaps suggests policy emphasis or enforcement tightening.
An educated assessment of the consistent failure to recruit new magistrates could be a cause of concern to the MOJ especially as its proposals to increase the workload to relieve crown courts of their backlog comes under increasing scrutiny. 68% of Judges are aged 50 or over. Such a position requires years of experience in life as well as in affairs legal. The fixation in the MOJ with "local" justice is becoming increasingly distant from reality. District Judges [MC] are appointed on ability; not that they are paying council tax for living a bus ride from the court in which they preside over function in addition to fact finding and sentence. Archived materials suggest that around 10% of cases at magistrates courts are heard by DJs or Deputies. It seems logical to conclude that the current cheaper costs of lay magistrates cf DJs might soon have to be revisited and those costs accepted when the reality is that the backlog at magistrates courts midway through 2025 was around 310,000 to 361,000 unresolved cases. It has been estimated that if no additional cases entered the court system the current magistrates courts` backlog could be cleared in less than three months at the existing processing capacity. Of course that`s a fairy tale. There are currently about 1.3 million magistrates’ cases entering the system annually and timeliness to clear cases is rising. At more than six months, average times from offence to completion are now higher than pre‑pandemic. Extra sitting days and other reforms are intended to speed up justice overall but there is no officially published target for how long it will take once or if reforms are implemented. In simple terms there is an uncontrolable rise in the backlog unless what to some will be unwelcome innovations and/or changes are made. These could include:-
A. a major increase in the number of lay magistrates
B. an increase in their sitting requirements
C. a major increase in the number of DJs and Deputies or
D. revolutionary changes in the provision of diversionary availabilities.
It is difficult in the light of recent failed recruitment efforts as above to think A. is realistic. B. is possible but it would mean MOJ abandoning its flagship "diversity" policy and swallowing the reality that an older higher income strata of society might be willing to consider appointment. C. would be a realistic option if DJs would accept that they could run the court without the assistance of a legal advisor or at the very least accepting a lower grade lower paid clerk. D. is "in the clouds" thinking.
Since 2010 [even since 1997] the courts have been financially emasculated. Chickens are now home and roosting in their entrails. The current "proposals" will do nothing to change the situation. Cassandra has appeared on this site [and others similar] for many years. Many warnings were given by those on the inside as well as those offering advice from the periphery. The collapse, and that is what it is, of our once inernationally renowned justice system is now impervious to meaningful long lasting improvement. Government has so many other problems in future only rouble billionaires and their estranged ex wives, disinherited relatives of global AI innovators and others similar will consider London as the legal jurisdiction to decide their future.
For the person on that fabled electric bus to Clapham with an appearance pending in the criminal court as witness or defendant the sky might look orange but the legal situation looks bleak. It`s the sunset of justice.
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