Martin Partington: Spotlight on the Justice System

For a number of years, concern has grown about the ability of the courts’ system to recruit judges, particular to the most senior positions in the High Court. One obvious idea, which gained considerable traction in 2020, was that the mandatory retirement age (MRA) for judges, set some years ago at 70, should be increased.

In July 2020, the Government launched a consultation on whether this would be a good idea, and if so what any new age limit should be. The results of this consultation are now in and were published in March 2021.

The Government has now decided that it will increase the MRA to 75, thereby putting the MRA back to the level it was some 20 years ago when the present MRA was introduced.

It might have been thought that this change could be made relatively straightforwardly, but in fact statutory amendment is required. In the familiar phrase used on these occasions, this will happen ‘when parliamentary time allows’.

This is often seen as pushing the required change into some indeterminate future date. My hunch is that, in this context, there is a degree of urgency. I doubt whether there will be a separate Act of Parliament on the point. But it would not surprise me if a clause was inserted in an appropriate Bill going through Parliament in the near future.

The consultation and the Government’s response are available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/consultation-on-judicial-mandatory-retirement-age