Justice Committee questions capacity of Magistrates’ Courts  to cope with criminal justice reforms       

The proposals are part of sweeping reforms to criminal justice in England and Wales set out in the Courts and Tribunals Bill.

Writing in a report on the provisions, the Justice Committee described the reforms as the "most significant change to the criminal courts in over fifty years", but raised concerns about the impacts on magistrates.

Central aspects of the Bill include the removal of a defendant’s right to elect a Crown Court trial, the expansion of magistrates’ sentencing powers, reforming the appeals process and introducing judge-only trials in the Crown Court.

The Bill is currently in the House of Commons, awaiting the completion of the report stage and its third reading before heading to the House of Lords.

The provisions are partly targeted at tackling backlogs in the Crown Court, which saw more than 80,000 outstanding cases as of December 2025.

However, the committee warned that the Magistrates' Court would require significant additional support in order to handle the resulting uptick in cases, and new powers.

"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 report said.

It also stated that the Government’s target of having 21,000 magistrates in post by 2029 (an increase of around 7,000) was "unrealistic", pointing to previous recruitment campaigns that had performed poorly and to retention challenges. It also highlighted a "chronic shortage" of suitably qualified legal advisers.

To tackle this, the report recommended that the Government put forward a plan to significantly increase the number of salaried district judges in the Magistrates’ Court.

It also called on the Government to ensure that the pay of legal advisers is matched with comparable legal roles in the public sector.

Elsewhere, the report said that proposals to increase magistrates' sentencing powers to 24 months were at odds with recommendations in Sir Brian Leveson’s Independent Review of the Criminal Courts.

It also "represents a significant shift in criminal justice policy, and would lead to more serious and complex cases being tried by lay magistrates”, the report said.

It added: "Further, the government is proposing that it should be able to change the maximum sentencing power of magistrates by statutory instrument, with limited parliamentary oversight, to one of four options. This could lead to frequent and novel changes in magistrates’ sentencing powers.”

The committee recommended this aspect of the Bill be amended to ensure it contains adequate safeguards.

Chair of the Justice Committee, Andy Slaughter MP, said the committee was “not convinced” that the magistrates’ court would be able to cope with the potential increase in caseload that the Bill could generate.

He said: “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.

He also highlighted concerns significant concerns around the equality impacts of the bill, stating: "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.”

Adam Carey