5.1 Magistrates are volunteers drawn from all walks of life. The Government recognises the importance of volunteers in the community and the lay magistracy has demonstrated considerable commitment over many years to voluntary service and the concept of citizenship in the local community.
5.2 Magistrates are not legally qualified but are given appropriate training to undertake their duties. They usually sit in threes and are advised on matters of law by legally qualified clerks. Over 95% of all criminal cases are dealt with by lay magistrates. They also decide many civil matters, particularly in relation to family work, hear licensing applications and deal with requests for warrants for arrest and search.
5.3 Lay magistrates in England and Wales (except in the Duchy of Lancaster that is Lancashire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside where, for historical reasons, magistrates are appointed by the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster) are appointed by the Lord Chancellor on behalf, and in the name, of the Sovereign.
5.4 Candidates are recommended for appointment by local Advisory Committees. In many areas, these Committees are supported by Sub-Committees. The Committees are made up, for the most part, of magistrates but the Lord Chancellor requires at least a third of the membership to consist of other local people who are not magistrates.
5.5 Those who express an interest in becoming a magistrate are supplied with an application form and Notes for Guidance. The Notes provide information about the duties of a magistrate and the eligibility requirements. They also list the six key qualities sought in magistrates, namely, good character, understanding and communication, social awareness, maturity and sound temperament, sound judgement, and commitment and reliability.
5.6 All candidates recommended to the Lord Chancellor for appointment will have undergone a two-stage interview process. These interviews will determine whether a candidate is personally suitable for appointment i.e. whether he or she possesses the six key qualities. The first interview is used to discover more about a candidate's personal attributes and to explore their attitudes on a number of criminal justice issues. The primary purpose of the second interview is to test judicial aptitude by discussion of at least two case studies, typical of those heard daily in a magistrates' court.
5.7 Once those candidates who are personally suitable have been identified, the Advisory Committee is then required to have regard to the number of vacancies and the need to ensure that the composition of the bench broadly reflects the community which it serves in terms of gender, ethnicity, geographical spread, occupation and political affiliation (currently used as a proxy for social balance).
5.8 Each Advisory Committee will generally make its recommendations to the Lord Chancellor once a year during a given month. The Lord Chancellor will consider a candidate's suitability for appointment regardless of ethnic origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion or disability, except where the disability prevents the fulfilment of the physical requirements of the office.
Applications and Appointments in 2001/20025.9 Annex G contains a breakdown of the magistracy in England and Wales (including the Duchy of Lancaster) by age, gender, ethnic origin and political affiliation.
5.10 Detailed statistics on the number of applications and appointments made during 2001/2002 are in Annex H (Table 57). In summary, 1474 people (763 men and 711 women) were appointed as magistrates (excluding appointments in the Duchy of Lancaster). Of these 125 (68 men and 57 women) were of minority ethnic origin. That is 8.5% of the total number of appointments. The tables below show the number of men and women appointed since 1997 and the number of people of minority ethnic origin appointed since 1994. The figures are for calendar years until 1998 and for financial years from 1998/1999. Figures are also available in Annex H (Table 59) for appointments in the Duchy of Lancaster.
|
1997 |
1998 |
1998/1999 |
1999/2000 |
2000/2001 |
2001/2002 |
|
|
Men |
764 |
816 |
654 |
692 |
703 |
763 |
|
Women |
809 |
793 |
624 |
731 |
633 |
711 |
|
Total |
1573 |
1609 |
1278 |
1423 |
1366 |
1474 |
| 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1998/ 1999 |
1999/ 2000 |
2000/ 2001 |
2001/ 2002 |
|
| Minority ethnic appointmentsas percentage of total |
|||||||||
| 5% | 6% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 6.5% | 7.6% | 8.6% | 9.3% | 8.5% | |
5.11 During the year work has been undertaken to develop a National Strategy for the recruitment of magistrates. The objectives of the strategy include: to raise the profile of the magistracy; to encourage more people to apply to be magistrates, from as wide a cross-section of the community as possible; and also to make employers understand the benefits to them, in terms of transferable skills, of releasing workers to be magistrates. The implementation of the recommendations of the Equality Working Group mentioned in last year's Report have been subsumed within the National Strategy.
5.12 As mentioned in last year's Report a magistrates shadowing scheme in co-operation with Operation Black Vote and the Magistrates Courts Service was formally launched in June 2001. Since then pilot shadowing schemes have been set up in seven areas (Bristol, Bradford, Birmingham, Oldham, Cardiff, Middlesex and Inner London) with the aim of improving awareness of the magistrates' courts and the role of magistrates among people from minority ethnic communities, and increasing the numbers of people from minority ethnic communities seeking appointment. The scheme has been a great success in all of the areas and consideration will now be given to how to extend the scheme to other areas.
5.13 The Lord Chancellor's Directions for Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace were revised to take account of developments since the last revision in 1998. The Department consulted the 89 Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace, the Magistrates Association, the Justices' Clerks' Society, the Association of Justices' Chief Executives, the Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Association of Police Authorities on the proposed changes. Suggested amendments have been incorporated into the draft where appropriate.
Developments Planned for 2002/20035.14 A graduation ceremony will take place in autumn 2002 for the participants of the magistrates shadowing scheme.
5.15 We plan to issue the revised Lord Chancellor's Directions for Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace in autumn 2002. They will be available on the Department's website (www.lcd.gov.uk).
5.16 Work will begin to implement the National Recruitment Strategy, including developing the components of a national campaign aimed at employers; developing a recognition scheme for employers; developing a generic presentation kit that can be used for awareness and recruitment events; working closely with Operation Black Vote to develop the "Judiciary for All" initiative; and developing a web-site exclusively dealing with magistrates' courts and the role of the magistracy.
5.17 Last year's report mentioned that a pilot exercise was being conducted to see whether a mixture of occupational, industrial and social groupings might be a practical alternative to the use of political balance as a measure of social mix. The pilot exercise took place in 10 areas of varying sizes and geographical locations in November and December 2001. Some 1,200 magistrates were invited to take part by completing a questionnaire. The results will be analysed later this year. The Lord Chancellor will then decide whether this method provides a practical alternative.
General Commissioners of Income Tax
How the System works5.18 Taxpayers who are in dispute with the Inland Revenue can appeal in the first instance to General Commissioners of Income Tax who are completely independent of the Inland Revenue and have wide discretion on the procedure to follow when hearing appeals. The appeals are heard in private and the decisions are not publicised. The General Commissioners are appointed by the Lord Chancellor to a Division of Commissioners, on the recommendation of local Advisory Committees. There are 74 such Committees throughout England and Wales.
5.19 Most of the members of the Advisory Committees are General Commissioners themselves, although the Lord Chancellor wishes each Committee to include at least one lay member. In undertaking their duties, Advisory Committees follow the guidance contained within the Lord Chancellor's Directions to Advisory Committees on General Commissioners of Income Tax, which were issued in 1994.
5.20 Before recommending any new appointment, an Advisory Committee must be satisfied that it is required in the light of current and future workload. Where a need has been identified, candidates are asked to complete an application form. The Lord Chancellor requires that every candidate recommended to him for appointment should have been interviewed by the Advisory Committee. The interview should establish personal suitability and also test judicial capacity.
5.21 Committees must bear in mind that once suitable candidates have been identified, they must try to ensure that each Division broadly reflects the community that it serves, particularly in terms of gender and ethnicity.
5.22 The Lord Chancellor will consider a candidate's suitability for appointment regardless of ethnic origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion or disability, except where the disability prevents the fulfilment of the physical requirements of the office.
Appointments in 2001/20025.23 In June 2001 a moratorium was imposed on the appointment of new General Commissioners of Income Tax except in case of desperate need because the national average sitting level for Divisions has now fallen to two or three sittings a year compared to the Lord Chancellor's preferred level of at least six sittings a year and because of the ongoing work to consider reform of the Tax Appeals Tribunals. Therefore, during the year, only four people (three men and one woman) were appointed as General Commissioners of Income Tax. As at 31 March 2002 there were 2,710 General Commissioners of Income Tax (2,178 men and 532 women).
Developments in 2001/20025.24 The reform of the appointments system has been on hold since the Tax Appeal Reform Project (TARP) was established in 2000 to consider proposals for the modernisation of the Tax Appeal system and to develop detailed options for its reform. The areas in which TARP is concentrating are: Jurisdiction, Process, Structure, Appointments, Training, Accommodation, Administration, Information Technology, Communications.
Developments in 2002/20035.25 TARP will announce the way ahead for the Tax Appeals in the summer of 2002.