ONLY one in 25 magistrates in England and Wales is aged under 40 - and urgent action is needed to address "serious" recruitment problems, a Commons report has warned.
MPs pointed to figures showing that more than eight in 10 (86 per cent) JPs are aged 50 and over - and well over half (57 per cent) are within 10 years of the retiring age of 70 - while the number of serving magistrates has almost halved in a decade.
The Commons Justice Committee also called for steps to increase diversity in the magistracy.
Statistics for 2016 show that 53 per cent of magistrates are female, and 89 per cent are white.
While the latter figure is comparable to the proportion of overall population that is white, the report noted that many benches have no, or very few, black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) magistrates - and only 4 per cent of JPs declared themselves to be disabled.
MPs said they recognise the valuable expertise of many older magistrates - and urged the Ministry of Justice to undertake a "workforce planning exercise" at the earliest possible opportunity.
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