Government urges public to volunteer as magistrates in major recruitment drive

The government is seeking to recruit more than 2,000 additional magistrates in the next financial year – the same number that have been trained since 2022.

Magistrates, who deputy prime minister David Lammy described as playing a ‘vital role in our court system’, are all volunteers who are expected to dedicate a minimum of 13 days a year to sitting on cases.

More than 2,000 magistrates have been trained since 2022. The new ‘ambitious’ recruitment drive, launched today by the Ministry of Justice, aims to boost the magistracy by the same number again in just the next financial year as part of the government’s ‘Plan for Change’.