Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of the number of magistrates serving in (a) Basildon Magistrates’ Court and (b) courts in Essex.

Magistrate capacity in Basildon and Essex is assessed through workforce modelling, which considers forecast workload, sitting requirements, current magistrate capacity, anticipated attrition and local demand. This is used to determine future recruitment requirements and ensure sufficient judicial capacity is maintained.