Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate his Department has made of the reduction in the number of magistrates in (a) England and Wales and (b) Northumbria in the last three years.

In England and Wales, as workloads have reduced and efficiencies have been delivered, the number of magistrates has reduced from 25,155 on 1 April 2012 to 15,003 on 1 April 2018. The corresponding figures for Northumbria are, 901 on 1 April 2012 to 421 on 1 April 2018.

Information on the number of magistrates from 2015 to date can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/search?q=judicial+diversity+statistics+. Information regarding numbers on 1 April 2012 can be found at: https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/magistrates-in-post-2012/.