BEC Meeting dates for 2009
(all meetings take place at Leicester Magistrates' Court at 2.15pm unless otherwise notified)
Thursday 10th January
Tuesday 11th March
Tuesday 12th May
Tuesday 9th July
Tuesday 15th September
Tuesday 3rd November
See Minutes of the Latest Branch Executive Committee Meeting below: -
MAGISTRATES’ ASSOCIATION
Minutes of the Branch Executive Committee (BEC) Meeting held on
Tuesday 15th September 2009 at 2.15pm at
Mr E Bestwick, Mr R Childs, Mr R Corlett, ,Mr R Harris, Mrs C
Roberts, Mr J Roberts.
Mr D Salmon, Mrs S Tracy, Mrs S Ware.
Mrs L Fogg in attendance.
and Mr N Sudborough.
Mr Chris Eyre Acting
Chief Constable, Leicestershire Constabulary.
Mrs Kate Carty, and Mr Chris Eyre were welcomed to the meeting and they
addressed
concerns expressed by Magistrates regarding the articles appearing in the
Mercury and also out of Court disposals.
Mrs Carty explained in depth the reasons for the recent misunderstanding,
which
culminated in an article in The Leicester Mercury appearing critical of
Magistrates.
This was not her intention and was the result of misquoting and comments
from
others taken out of context. Her response to the journalist was intended
to be damage
limitation as the newspaper was intending the article to be hostile to
the current judicial
system. She was keen to establish a good working relationship with
Magistrates and
apologised for any offence caused, however unintentional, by the
offending article. She
fully understood the upset caused to local Magistrates.
She confirmed that the system in the CPS she inherited
was inefficient and
improvements over the past 18 months together
with the advent of CJSSS were
the reasons there was less work currently in the
Courts. The CPS were
still actively seeking to bring cases to Court
and the numbers of charging offences
had increased over the past 3 years.
The CPS were constantly looking at why cases did not
proceed and investigating any
obvious instances of undercharging. In
these efforts they were working closely with
the Police.
Mr Eyre reiterated that it was essential the
entire Community Justice System
connected with Communities.
He agreed that the Leicester Mercury articles undermined
all of us and if we were being critical of each other in public, how
could we expect
the Communities we serve to have confidence in all of
us. He confirmed that
regular meetings were being held with appropriate
bodies to ensure we were all
working together and protecting the public but said
that when it was suggested that
Magistrates should be part of the Criminal Justice Board discussions and
review the response
had been that that would compromise judicial independence.
He would welcome Magistrates’
involvement. When
asked about crime statistics he explained the problem in National Standards
of recording, which can have a distorting effect on statistics.
Often offences were recorded
at the upper level of a classification
which gave a wrong impression to the general public. He
accepted that we need to improve systems as a whole and he was happy for
the Courts to
challenge the Police on any issues
where Magistrates or the CPS felt they were not
doing things properly.
Both Mrs Carty and Mr Eyre outlined statistics to demonstrate performance
against crime levels.
A question raised by the BEC was why the Court disposals had considerably
reduced in Leicestershire
whereas the reduction in
to gain communities’ and victims’ confidence that action is being
taken.
Both Mrs
Carty and Mr Eyre were keen to work with us and be fully accountable.
After a series of questions to both of them
and discussion, on behalf of the BEC
the Chairman thanked them for coming to the meeting and
looked forward to a closer working
together in the future. Mrs
Carty and Mr Eyre both indicated they would be happy to meet the
BEC in the future and assured the BEC of their desire to work
closely with it and the Magistracy.
They left the meeting at 3pm.
4.
Minutes
of the Meeting held on 9 July 2009: These
were agreed as a true
and correct record and
were signed by the Chairman.
5.
Matters
arising not otherwise on the Agenda:
Minute 7- Mr Bestwick
confirmed that the Branch Archives were now
stored
in the basement at Pocklington’s Walk.
It
was agreed that the BEC Annual Report be prepared in good time ensuring
completion
by January 2010.
Minute 8 - Mr Bestwick
confirmed he was still making efforts to
contact
Mr Keir Starmer with a view to his speaking at our Autumn Branch
Meeting
in 2010.He was also liaising with County Hall for a range of dates for
that
meeting, either at the end of October or early November.
Minute 9 - It was confirmed
Mrs Wilson, Mrs Ware and Mr Bestwick
would
be attending the MA. Officers Meeting and AGM in
Other BEC members to attend, if available, at the Saturday General
Meeting.
6.
Correspondence:
It was confirmed the
Chairman had sent a congratulatory
letter to Mr Matt Baggot on his recent appointment as Head of
Police in
7.
Post
of Minuting Secretary: Mrs
Fogg was welcomed to the meeting
in her role as an observer with a view to filling the vacant
post of Minuting
Secretary.
Acting Honorary Secretary
Mr Bestwick also confirmed that although co-opted and
appointed as Branch Secretary at
the last meeting, Branch Officers are elected at the Branch
AGM.
He had spoken with Sally Dickinson, CEO of the MA, on this
matter and she had
advised that he was in fact ”Acting Honorary Secretary”
until that time. The Committee agreed
that his appointment was as Acting Honorary Secretary.
by the meeting) would be placed on
all Magistrates’ rooms noticeboards.
500 invites and letters had been
issued in total. The response to date was:
8 VIP’s and partners,were
attending including The Chairman of Leicester County Council,
The Lord Mayor of
Area Director Richard Redgrave and Mrs Kate Carty Head of C.P.S.
Leicestershire and
Escorts for V.I.P’s were needed,and Mr Bestwick would contact members
of the Executive
to seek help/volunteers as appropriate.
62 members had confirmed their attendance with 79 replying “unable to
attend”.
The Chairman asked BEC Bench
Representatives to speak to their Benches to encourage more members to attend.
MA. Annual General Meeting Birmingham
14th Nov 2009
Noted.
10.
Council Matters: It
was advised that all Councils will have 2 representatives
in future, not the current 1 to 3. There would also be only 2 Council
meetings
per year instead of the current 3. The Chairman also expressed her thanks
for the
comments she had received from members of The Family Court.
11. JIG Matters and Strategic Review Matter: Noted
there is to be JIG meeting on 16th Sept 2009 and
Mrs Wilson and
Mrs Ware would give feed back at the next BEC Meeting. Similarly, Richard
Redgrave will be
speaking at the Bench A.G.M. on the Strategic Review Group.
13.
Garden Party.
It was agreed that Mr Graham Beake would represent the Magistrates
Association Branch at the 2010
Garden Party and that Mr John Betteridge would be invited to attend in
2011 and Mr Roger Corlett
in 2012.
14
Birthday 2010 Honours List Nominations: A
communication from the MA was noted
that any nominations are to be forwarded by 5th October 2009
to The Ministry of Justice.
15
MATC: Nothing
to report.
16.
MIC Report: Mr Corlett briefly discussed the Report issued to all BEC
members. He confirmed
that a number of presentations were in the process of being arranged.
17.
PAGRI: Noted Mr R Gandhi to attend the next PAGRI meeting.
18.
Membership Secretary’s Report: In Mr Betteridge’s absence, Mr Bestwick
confirmed that he would email all BEC members with the latest
statistics on
membership. Apparently 77% of current Magistrates in Leics/Rutland
are members of the MA with an overall total of 513 members.
It was confirmed that there
would be 11 new Magistrates sworn in this year with 6
allocated for Leicester, 1 Market Harborough,
and 3 Loughborough and 1 Market Bosworth benches.
Mr Betteridge would be attending the swearing in
ceremony on October 22nd and would be assisted
by Mr Beake and Mr Harris in his MATC capacity.
19.
Website Update: Mr Salmon advised nothing to add. Last update was at the end
of July 2009.
20.
Constituency Items: Mr Roberts advised that he had located a box of teddy
bears in Court 11 which he assumed was for young children in adoption
cases. The
Chairman would speak to Marion Cullen Family Court Chair to confirm this.
Mrs Tracy raised the issue of the Car Park Roller Shutter at Leicester
Courthouse.
Her concern was what would happen in the event of a fire? The Chairman
agreed to speak with
Kate Finn, Courts Manager, with a view to getting a short article,
allaying fears in the next
edition of Magistrates’ Matters.
Mrs Ware advised that the new Appraisal forms were now in use from 1st
September
2009 but if Appraisers were unhappy with them they could still use the
old ones for
a short time. The general view of the Meeting was that the new forms were
a great
improvement on the old ones. Mrs Ware also advised that several
Magistrates
had commented adversely on Chairman of MA John Thornhill’s critical
comments of the
Police on Radio 4.
Mrs Fogg raised the issue of CPS often not having Police availability
listings when
date fixing for trials at Court.
21.
Branch Meetings 2010:
AGM-29th April-Speaker Sir John Goldring
ABM-Oct/Nov-date to be confirmed-speaker Keir Starmer currently
being approached.
BEC Meetings 2010. After the JIG meeting on 16th
Sept 2009, Mr Bestwick will
circulate a draft calendar of dates.
Provisional Meeting Dates 2010:- Thurs 14th Jan
Thurs 5th Mar
AGM 29th Apr
Tues 11th May
Thurs 8th July
Tues 14th Sept
ABM
Oct/Nov?
Tues 2nd Nov
22. Date of next Meeting –
Tuesday 3rd November 2009 at Leicester Courthouse,
Pocklington’s Walk 2.15pm
Signed……………………………………..Chairman)
Date ……………………………
Distribution:
HH Judge M. Pert QC – Magistrates Liaison Judge for Leicestershire and
Clerk to the Justices Leicestershire and
Bench Chairmen
Day Bench Chairmen
MA Notice Boards
Branch Executive Committee Members
Branch MA Representatives
Mrs Janet Higgins JP-Liaison with
BEC Minutes 15 Sept 2009
Signed:……………………… Date:…………
cc. Clerk to
the Justices in Leicestershire and
cc. Bench Chairmen
cc. Day Bench Chairmen
cc. MA Notice Boards
cc. Branch Executive Committee Members
cc. Bench MA Representatives