An overview of lay magistracy in Northern Ireland

After a high profile recruitment campaign aimed at people from all walks of life, 227 new lay magistrates were welcomed to Laganside Courts on 8 April by the Lord Chief Justice. Lucy Cochrane of Citizens Advice examines the background to the creation of the new judicial office and outlines the role of the new magistrates.

In April 2005, The Office of the Lay Magistrate was officially established. The Belfast Agreement of 1998 had identified in the policing and justice section that one of the four aims of the criminal justice system was to ‘be responsive to the community concerns and encourage community involvement where appropriate’.

The office of Lay Magistrate was created on the recommendation of the Criminal Justice Review and is a judicial office.

From lay panellists to lay magistrates

1. Defining a new role

The role of lay magistrates has replaced the former functions of lay panellists in youth courts, family proceedings courts and criminal justice functions formerly held by justices of the peace.

The Criminal Justice Review made a series of recommendations for the future of lay involvement in the justice system amongst which was the creation of a new judicial post of lay magistrate created by relieving the justices of the peace of their criminal justice functions and amalgamating these with the functions currently performed by members of the youth and family proceedings lay panel. Following these recommendations, the new duties of lay magistrates include:

• sitting with a resident magistrate in youth courts hearing cases in criminal matters involving young persons;
• sitting with the resident magistrate in family proceedings courts dealing with civil issues relating to welfare, care, protection and custody of children;
• sitting with a county court judge as an assessor in appeals from youth courts;
• dealing with certain ex-parte applications, such as emergency protection orders or recovery orders;
• hearing complaints with a view to issuing summonses and warrants.

2. Reflecting all sections of society

The Justice (NI) Act 2002 is a product of the Criminal Justice Review. The Act introduces a variety of changes to the current criminal justice system. The Act also gives effect to the provisions in relation to the eligibility of candidates for appointment as lay magistrates. In March 2000, the report on the Review of Criminal Justice in Northern Ireland made further recommendations for the creation of the new judicial post.

A full consultation was circulated on the establishment of the lay magistracy in Northern Ireland at the end of 2003 and an equality impact assessment was carried out. The main findings were:

• there was an imbalance of age profile and the age limit ceiling of 65 was replaced with 70;
• there was a need to address people with disabilities and carers who may have been previously excluded.

In addition to this, under-represented groups were addressed with the launch of an extensive media campaign using television, radio, newspaper, billboard advertising and information packs distributed to special interest groups.

3. Keeping magistrates in youth courts

During the consultation period for the review of the Criminal Justice system in 1999, resident magistrates supported the view that lay panellists added considerable value to the deliberations of youth courts. However, they did not feel that a case has been made for introducing lay magistrates to hear adult cases and some were strongly opposed to the idea’. This is different to the role of lay magistrates in the rest of the UK who presently do hear adult cases and have described their roles as a ‘significant additional human resource and a key way in which public expectations can become more realistic, confidence enhanced and attitudes to offenders less punitive’.

The review addressed the fact that the cultural and historical background was particularly significant, therefore the role of lay magistracy has been considerably different from England and Wales, one of the main reasons in the past being civil unrest.

A brief history of lay participation in Northern Ireland

The history of lay magistracy dates back to 1908 in Northern Ireland when the Children Act was introduced. The juvenile courts established by the Act comprised of local justices of the peace and may or may not have been chaired by a resident magistrate. After partition, justices of the peace initially heard summary petty cases.

In the 1935 Criminal Justice Act, lay participation was removed and the resident magistrate sat alone on cases of scheduled summary courts.

However, in 1942, The Children (Juvenile Courts) Act (Northern Ireland) was introduced and this provided the necessity for two lay persons to sit with the resident magistrate in cases involving juveniles, though at this time judicial powers were limited.

Following The Children and Young Persons Act 1950, the second schedule of the Act provided for the formation in each county and county borough of a panel of persons having special qualifications for dealing with juvenile cases. The court then consisted of a resident magistrate and two lay panellists, one of whom should be female. By this stage, lay members had full judicial powers. However, the circumstances were not ideal and juvenile courts were not physically separated from adult courts, resulting in the mingling of children with adult offenders which today would seem inconceivable.

The 1968 Children and Young Persons Act re-enacted the provisions relating to the constitution of juvenile courts and made training for newly appointed lay panellists a statutory obligation.

The newly appointed magistrates

The Justice (NI) Act 2002 implements the recommendations of the criminal justice review.

The Lay Magistrates (Eligibility) (NI) Order 2004 makes provision for residence, occupations and criminal convictions which define who is incompatible to work as a lay magistrate. Applicants are appointed on merit and broadly reflect Northern Ireland society. There were previous doubts as to whether there was broad enough representation of class, gender and community backgrounds.

The three-stage process tested strictly on merit and competence based selection criteria: good character; understanding and communication; social awareness; sound judgement; commitment and reliability. The recruitment process encouraged appointment from all sections of the community.

It is anticipated that the new appointments will bring broad understanding of social issues, stressing the importance of a diverse representation. Lay magistrates will relieve pressure on the professional judiciary and improve public understanding of the criminal justice system.

The new lay magistrates, initially appointed for a period of five years, have commenced their duties and Citizens Advice supports the positive changes and will monitor the impact of this new tier to the judicial system.