The Ministry of Justice has opened a national campaign, launched on 3 January 2026, to recruit new volunteer magistrates across England and Wales, targeting around 2,000 appointments in the 2026–27 financial year as part of the government’s Plan for Change to speed up justice for victims.
Officials say more than 2,000 additional magistrates have been trained since 2022. As at 1 April 2025 there were 14,636 magistrates in post; 57% were women and 14% from ethnic minority backgrounds, with London at 31% ethnic minority representation.
Magistrates are unpaid volunteers who are expected to sit for at least 13 full days a year (or 26 half‑days), a commitment designed to fit alongside employment or caring responsibilities. Hearings are supported throughout by qualified legal advisers.
Applications are open across jurisdictions including adult criminal, youth and selected family and civil proceedings. The Ministry of Justice and the judiciary prioritise strong communication, a clear sense of fairness and the ability to weigh competing arguments.
Training and support are structured. New recruits complete about ten days of learning during their first two years, receive a dedicated mentor and undertake continuing development through the Judicial College.
Context for the drive is the pressure on caseloads. Open cases in the magistrates’ courts reached a series peak of 373,040 at the end of September 2025, with timeliness at a post‑COVID series high. Around half of the open magistrates’ caseload now relates to Single Justice Procedure cases.
The recruitment aligns with the government’s ‘Swift and fair’ package announced on 2 December 2025, which proposes judge‑only ‘Swift Courts’ for cases likely to attract sentences of three years or less and raises magistrates’ sentencing powers to 18 months, with scope to extend to two years, freeing Crown Court capacity for the most serious offences.
Analysis: Additional volunteers will only translate into faster case progression if listing capacity, courtroom availability and legal‑adviser staffing increase in tandem. As training is staged, benefits will build over time; by law, employers must allow reasonable time off for magistrate duties, supporting sustained availability.
Prospective candidates should confirm eligibility and prepare their application. For criminal work, applicants must visit a magistrates’ court at least twice in the 12 months before applying; those interested in family work are required to research the jurisdiction, as hearings are held in private.
The campaign sits within the wider Plan for Change, which also includes record Crown Court sitting days and investment across the system. Policy Wire will track outcomes through the Ministry of Justice’s quarterly criminal court statistics and annual judicial diversity data.