Managing Magistrates’ Courts: A Loss of Local Control

Abstract

The tension between local and central services has played out in government over the last century. Ministers and their London-based civil servants are keen to gain and maintain control over policy and how it is implemented. Local politicians and other stakeholders say central control does not work and stifles innovation. There are many areas of justice which have see-sawed between local and central control, of which the administration of the courts is a good example. This chapter offers an overview of how and why the administration of magistrates’ courts in England and Wales was centralised in 2003, and what implications that has had for local and other stakeholders.¹