Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lay magistrates were asked to step down by advisory committees in the last year for which there are data on the ground of failing to maintain the required competences; and how many magistrates each year undergo appraisal.

The assessment of magistrates’ competence is a matter for the local Bench Training and Development Committee (BDTC), which reports to the advisory committee for the local justice area. Where the BDTC has concluded that a magistrate has failed, over a period of time, to reach the required standard the advisory committee may make a recommendation to the Lord Chancellor and the Lord Chief Justice that the magistrate should be removed from office.

The process for removing a magistrate on such a basis is managed by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office. One magistrate has been removed from the magistracy during the last year for failing to maintain the required competences.

Magistrates are appraised on their performance once every three years for each jurisdiction (adult court, family court, youth court) in which they sit. Appraisals are carried out locally by trained appraisers in line with a nationally approved framework. On account of the three-yearly cycle, roughly a third of the approximately 21,000 magistrates in England and Wales could expect to undergo appraisal in any given year.