Select committee: Justice Committee
18th Report - The role of the magistracy: follow-up
HC 1654
Published 18 June 2019
Justice Committee The role of the magistracy – follow up inquiry Report on parliament.uk ↗
At a glanceGovernment response published 30 October 2019
The government's response
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.
The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it will support the judiciary-led magistrates strategy rather than develop a separate Government strategy.
- On recruitment, it is establishing a Magistrates Recruitment and Attraction Steering Group, jointly chaired by MoJ leaders and the Magistrates Leadership Executive, which it says will meet quarterly.
- On expenses, it says the review, which includes the Financial Loss Allowance, is under way, and it expects it to conclude by Spring 2020.
- On the retirement age, it is "positively considering" a change for all judicial office holders and "will consult publicly on this in due course". It notes that any change would need primary legislation.
- On sentencing powers, it agrees that any extension needs "a clear evidence base" but says it is "unable to commit" to extending magistrates' custodial powers "at this stage". It intends to publish failure to appear statistics quarterly, starting in December 2019.
What the committee recommended
No recommendations or conclusions have been extracted from this report. This is normal for correspondence and for special reports.
Sources
- 18th Report - The role of the magistracy: follow-up ↗The committee's report, HC 1654, parliament.uk
- Government Response to the Justice Committee’s Eighteenth Report of Session 2017-19: The Role of the Magistracy: Follow-up ↗The government's response, 30 October 2019, parliament.uk