The magistrates’ court will struggle to handle a potential increase in caseload generated by the government’s flagship court reforms and requires ‘significant additional support’, a new Justice Committee report has warned.
MPs said the target of reaching 21,000 magistrates by 2029 is unrealistic, noting that previous recruitment campaigns have fallen far short, that retention remains a persistent challenge and there is a chronic shortage of qualified legal advisers. The number of magistrates stood at approximately 15,000 in 2025.
While acknowledging the Crown Court backlog – with some victims told they will wait until 2030 for trials – the committee called on ministers to provide much more detail on how the expansion of magistrates’ court capacity is deliverable.
The report also raised significant equality concerns over proposals to reduce the role of juries. The Lammy Review in 2017 found that juries are one of the few areas where Black and ethnic minority defendants do not face disproportionate outcomes. The committee said it was ‘shocking’ that only 1% of Crown Court judges are Black, a figure unchanged since 2015.
MPs also noted that the absence of a formal government response to Sir Brian Leveson’s independent review of criminal courts has ‘inhibited scrutiny’ of the reforms. The committee said it is ‘difficult to understand why the government has not sought to achieve a broader consensus on these proposals’.
The report went on to highlight a lack of reliable data to estimate how many cases will be retained in the magistrates’ court following the removal of the right to elect for Crown Court trial. MPs recommended additional safeguards around any move to double magistrates’ sentencing powers from 12 to 24 months via a statutory instrument with limited parliamentary oversight.
On judge-only trials, the committee said the government should have provided a more concrete evidential basis for claimed time savings, and recommended that the Ministry of Justice review the first year of their operation.
Chair of the Justice Committee and Labour MP Andy Slaughter said: ‘The Courts and Tribunals Bill represents the most significant change to the criminal courts in more than half a century and will fundamentally reshape how justice is delivered in England and Wales.
‘The Committee recognises the urgency of the Crown Court crisis, with victims waiting years for justice as outstanding cases rise to 80,000, with listings for 2030.
‘Yet this Bill was introduced without a formal response to Part 1 of Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review, without pre-legislative scrutiny by this Committee and with some potential unintended consequences.
‘Given the contested nature of the reforms, it is difficult to understand why a broader consensus within Parliament and beyond was not sought before the bill was introduced.
‘These include: the removal of a defendant’s right to elect a Crown Court trial, expanding magistrates’ sentencing powers, reforming the appeals process and introducing judge only trials in the Crown Court.
‘As the Committee’s report concludes, we are not convinced that the magistrates’ court will be able to cope with the potential increase in caseload that the bill could generate.
‘The Government’s target of having 21,000 magistrates in post by 2029 is unrealistic. Ministers must demonstrate in more detail how the plan to expand capacity in the magistrates’ court is deliverable.
‘The Committee shares the significant concerns of many in the justice sector around the potential equality impacts of the bill, particularly in relation to race. It is ‘shocking’ that only 1% of Crown Court judges are Black, a figure that has not changed since 2015.
‘The persistence of such stark underrepresentation demonstrates that efforts to date have failed to deliver meaningful change. The Government must take action to improve progression routes to the senior judiciary and set out a clear national target to achieve a representative judiciary and magistracy by 2035.’
The report can be read here.
Photo: Geoffrey Moffett
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