Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lay magistrates there were, and how many criminal cases lay magistrates presided over, in England and Wales in 2009; what are their current estimates of how many criminal cases lay magistrates will preside over in 2015, and how many lay magistrates and district judges are required to meet this volume of cases; and what are their plans for recruiting lay magistrates and district judges over the next three years.

As of 1st April 2009 there were 28,619 serving magistrates in England and Wales. The number of court cases dealt with in 2009 are recorded for the year from April 2009 to March 2010, during which time the magistrates’ courts dealt with 1,857,461 criminal cases. This figure includes the number of cases presided over by both magistrates and district judges (magistrates’ courts).

It is not possible to split case volumes between magistrates and district judges because a district judge might deal with certain aspects of a case, whilst magistrates might hear other aspects.

Workload forecasts are not prepared on a calendar year basis, and are not broken down between magistrates and district judges (magistrates’ courts). The MoJ is currently planning that the magistrates and district judges (magistrates’ courts) sitting in the magistrates’ courts will preside over around 1,560,000 criminal cases in 2015/16.

The need to recruit magistrates and district judges (magistrates' courts) is reviewed annually as a whole. One of the key aims is to ensure optimal use of both magistrates and district judges, each being essential to the administration of justice.