Ministry of Justice plans to recruit 6,000 more magistrates and introduce faster national selection processes across England and Wales
A major recruitment drive to appoint thousands of new magistrates has been launched as part of government plans to deliver faster and fairer justice for victims.
The Ministry of Justice said the initiative is intended to speed up the handling of cases by increasing capacity in the magistrates’ courts, which play a central role in the justice system.
A key part of the reform is to reduce the time it takes to recruit magistrates. The current process can take more than a year, but ministers said this will be cut by at least half under the new system.
To achieve this, a national recruitment taskforce will be established to oversee the process across England and Wales. This is intended to bring greater consistency to recruitment, which has previously been managed locally and varied between areas.
For the first time, recruitment will also take place year-round, with quarterly campaigns replacing the previous approach of periodic exercises. The government said this would create a more regular pipeline of candidates and help courts respond more quickly to demand.
The overall aim is to increase the number of magistrates to around 21,000 by March 2029 – around 6,000 more than current levels.
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy said the reforms reflected the “vital role” magistrates play in the justice system, noting that they hear thousands of cases across different jurisdictions and serve their local communities. He said speeding up recruitment and encouraging people from all backgrounds to apply would help strengthen that role.
He added that the changes form part of a wider programme of modernisation, alongside investment in the justice system and reforms in the Courts and Tribunals Bill, aimed at delivering faster and fairer justice for victims.
The government has also committed additional funding to promote the magistrate role and encourage applications from a broader range of backgrounds, as part of efforts to improve diversity on the bench.
Figures show that 57% of magistrates are women and 14% come from ethnic minority backgrounds, with the recruitment campaign aiming to build on this progress.
Responding to the plans, David Ford, national chair of the Magistrates’ Association, said magistrates would be central to the government’s reforms and that increasing numbers would be essential if those plans were to succeed.
He noted that newly appointed magistrates had reported that the recruitment process was often over-long, with poor communication about the progress of applications. He welcomed the creation of a national taskforce to coordinate recruitment, saying it would build on a pilot scheme that had already reduced waiting times and frustration for applicants.
The recruitment drive forms part of wider efforts to improve the efficiency of the justice system, with ministers seeking to address delays and improve outcomes for victims through a combination of increased capacity and procedural reform.