Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2021 to Question 170517 on the reinstatement, after the enactment of forthcoming legislation, of retired magistrates between the ages of 70 and 75, whether (a) all such magistrates will be invited individually to indicate whether they wish to return to the Bench and (b) the transitional process for those magistrates to be reinstated will provide for (i) preference to be given to the most senior magistrates who are willing to travel to courts throughout designated areas facing backlogs of cases, (ii) decisions on reinstatement to be taken at regional level and not at the level of individual courts to maximise (A) availability and (B) flexibility in the deployment of the most experienced reinstated magistrates and (iii) use to be made of the network of Justices' Training, Approvals, Authorisations and Appraisals Committees in managing the return and reallocation of magistrates who retired at age 70 but are about to become eligible for reinstatement.

When the new mandatory retirement age (MRA) comes into force, there will be a transitional provision to enable retired magistrates to apply to return to the bench, subject to business need. The process by which such applications are to be made and considered will be set out in due course.