Magistrates Courts Committees

HC Deb 12 May 1994 vol 243 cc243-4W

Mr. Boateng

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department (1) if he will list all the magistrates courts committees which have appointed a head of service and those magistrates courts committees whose head of service are(a) purely a chief executive to the committee and (b) both chief executive to the committee and a justices' clerk to a sole petty sessions area;

(2) if he will list those magistrates courts committees that have named their head of service (a) chief justices' clerk, (b) justices' chief executive, (c) chief executive and (d) another name; and if he will list those other names and the number of magistrates courts committees adopting each one.

Mr. John M. Taylor

Under the present statutory arrangements, every magistrates courts committee has a clerk who serves in an administrative capacity and is not a head of service. Sometimes the post is full time, sometimes part time with the postholder serving also as a justices' clerk for one or more petty sessional divisions or, in a few cases, as a local authority official. The Lord Chancellor's approval is not currently required for the appointment of clerks to committees and committees are free to give their own titles to the posts without consulting the Department.

All official correspondence from the Department is addressed to clerks to the magistrates courts committees. However, a number of committees have combined the role of clerk to the committee with that of a chief executive by appointing that individual as a joint justices clerk for all the petty sessional divisions in the committee's area.