There are no plans to change the retirement age for magistrates.
The new age regulations provide that discrimination will not be unlawful if it is undertaken in order to comply with a requirement of any statutory provision. The retirement age for magistrates is set at 70 by s.12(2) and 13(1) of the Courts Act 2003. Therefore, moving magistrates on to the Supplemental List at age 70 will not constitute unlawful age discrimination under the Regulations.
It is our policy to increase judicial diversity and it is particularly important that magistrates, whose great strength is that they are local people delivering local justice, reflect the diverse communities they serve. Nationally, 80 per cent. of magistrates are over 50. We need to recruit substantially more magistrates under the age of 50, and allowing magistrates to sit beyond 70 would work against this important objective.