Am returning to an important subject-are magistrates representative of the people? New judicial diversity stats have been published today & its not looking pretty. On ethnic diversity JPs seem to be going backwards. The overall total of BAME (sorry their term) JPs is stuck at 13%

There has been no significant rise in BAME magistrates for several years. And there is a lower % of BAME new recruits -12% - than in the magistracy in general. Of all magistrates 82% are over 50 and, of new recruits, the majority (58%) are over 50. Age diversity of JPs will not

change unless they start recruiting a greater proportion of younger magistrates. This situation will get far worse if government proposals to extend the retirement age of magistrates come in - they want to continue sitting post 70. Why does this matter? Because trust in justice

relies on people thinking that magistrates & juries are representative of the people. This is no criticism of current magistrates but if young black male defendants keep appearing in front of "peers" who are over 50, white and middle class, no wonder they are sceptical.

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2020-statistics https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-judicial-mandatory-retirement-age apologies if any errors ...only had time for a quick look at figures #diversitymatters @BarristerSecret