Judicial mandatory retirement age: consultation

Why we are consulting

The Ministry of Justice has issued a consultation, which closed on 16 October, inviting views on proposals to raise the mandatory retirement age (MRA) for judicial office holders to either 72 or 75 years of age.

The consultation document can be found at https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/judicial-mandatory-retirement-age/

The retirement age for most judicial office holders is 70 and derives from primary legislation enacted 27 years ago. The purpose of the Ministry of Justice's consultation is to consider if an MRA of 70 continues to achieve the objective of balancing the requirement for sufficient judicial expertise to meet the demands on courts and tribunals whilst safeguarding improvement in judicial diversity and protecting the independence of and confidence in our judiciary.

The Ministry of Justice's consultation covers those judicial offices whose MRA falls within the sole legislative competence of the UK Parliament. It does not include devolved judicial offices and it is for the governments in each of the devolved administrations to consider whether to raise the MRA for their respective devolved judicial office holders.

In Scotland, these offices are:

• Lord President of the Court of Session
• Lord Justice Clerk
• Judge of the Court of Session
• Temporary Judge of the Court of Session
• Sheriff Principal, Sheriff or Summary Sheriff
• Temporary Sheriff Principal
• Part-time Sheriff
• Part-time Summary Sheriff
• Justice of the Peace
• Chairman or other member of the Scottish Land Court
• Ordinary or legal member of the Scottish Tribunals
• Members of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland
• President and Members of the Pensions Appeal Tribunal

The Welsh Government and Northern Ireland Executive have each issued consultations on raising the MRA for the judicial offices within their devolved competence.