Anti-racism campaigners should volunteer to sit on court benches, say magistrates

BLACK Lives Matter activists concerned by racial bias in the justice system should consider becoming magistrates to help improve diversity and increase trust, longstanding members of the bench have said.

Magistrates courts in England and Wales deal with 90 per cent of criminal court cases every year but are facing a recruitment crisis.

The number of magistrates has dropped 43 per cent in the last eight years, from more than 25,000 to fewer than 15,000 in 2019.

Fifty-two per cent of those remaining face mandatory retirement within the next 10 years, as magistrates cannot sit beyond the age of 70.

Now the Magistrates Association, which represents magistrates in England and Wales, is hoping the recent Black Lives Matter protests and the resulting scrutiny of policing and the justice system might inspire more people to volunteer in the courts.

Jacqueline MacDonald-Davis, who has been a magistrate since 2005, said: “It is about being involved. No longer standing on the sideline and shouting in, [young people] have to engage in the process – which is exactly what they are doing now.”

“Part of that process is saying ‘I should become a magistrate’ and ‘I should be looking for jobs in the legal system’.”

Some on the bench fear many younger potential candidates will be deterred by the magistracy’s image as the preserve of middleclass, middle-aged white men.

In reality, the magistracy is actually one of the most diverse areas of the justice system.

Fifty-six per cent of magistrates are women and 12 per cent identify as being of black and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds, rising to 28 per cent in London. By comparison just seven per cent of court judges are people of colour, and only 32 per cent are women.

But Ms MacDonald-Davis believes that more needs to be done, especially to attract younger BAME people to the bench.

Describing her own experience of becoming a magistrate, she said: “I recognised that I was in the minority.

“But the question I always ask myself is ‘What are you going to do about it? Are you not going to put yourself forward because you may be the only one?”