Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the press release entitled Thousands step forward in record magistrate recruitment drive, published on 23 October 2026, what arrangements are in place to evaluate the recruitment campaign, including its effect on application numbers, appointment rates, regional recruitment and retention.

The Ministry of Justice has put in place arrangements to evaluate the magistrate recruitment campaign through a combination of campaign tracking research and recruitment data analysis. Pre-, mid- and post-campaign research will measure changes in awareness of the magistrate role, the proportion of people who identify with the role of magistrate, and the proportion of people who would consider applying to become a magistrate.

The Ministry of Justice will also analyse pre-application registrations and completed applications, both nationally and by recruitment region, to assess the campaign's effect on application numbers and regional recruitment. This information will inform the overall assessment of the campaign's effectiveness in generating additional magistrate applications and appointments. Once the campaign has completed and our detailed independent evaluation has been completed, we will be able to give a cost per application figure, but this will not be until post April 2027.