In his response, published this week, to last year’s consultation on judicial mandatory retirement age, Buckland said he was confident this struck ‘the right balance between protecting the need to have a mandatory retirement age with the benefits to the justice system from retaining valuable expertise for longer and attracting a wider range of applicants’. He said it would encourage a more diverse range of applicants, including those who may have taken extended career breaks to balance work and family responsibilities, while maintaining public confidence in the judiciary.
Buckland said about 1,000 judges have been recruited per year since 2018. In the past five years, there has been a shortage of judges in the High Court and on the circuit and district benches. This has been mirrored in the magistrates’ courts, with shortages of magistrates in some areas. Buckland’s post-consultation response highlighted that ‘given the age profile of the magistracy, the retention of the large proportion approaching retirement (at age 70) in the next few years will be essential to ensure magistrates’ courts are sufficiently resourced’.
The consultation received more than 1,000 responses, with magistrates making up the majority of respondents. Most supported the rise to 75 years.
Meanwhile, the courts continue to struggle with a backlog of cases. This week, the Crown Prosecution Service, National Police Chiefs’ Council and College of Policing set out their joint commitment to speed up case progression, building on work completed under the National Disclosure Improvement Plan.
The heads of the three organisations said: ‘Under this commitment we seek to address practical issues which present barriers to effective case progression as well as promoting a change in mindset towards proactive case management and progression.’
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