Suspend the current retirement age for Magistrates

We cannot go on losing highly experienced Magistrates, crucially with time to sit, just because they are 70 when we are facing an enormous backlog of court cases (you can be a juror up to 75). As the chairman of the Magistrates Association, puts it: “We are rapidly heading for the perfect storm in the magistrates court. The backlog is increasing while the number of magistrates continues to fall, yet we are discarding those magistrates most able and willing to address this crisis”.