Administration of Justice Act 1964

10 Metropolitan stipendiary magistrates

(1) Metropolitan stipendiary magistrates shall be appointed by Her Majesty and Her Majesty shall from time to time appoint such number of persons as is necessary, but the number of metropolitan stipendiary magistrates shall not at any time exceed forty.

(2) A person shall not be qualified to be appointed a metropolitan stipendiary magistrate unless he is a barrister or solicitor of not less than seven years' standing.

(3) The Lord Chancellor shall designate one of the metropolitan stipendiary magistrates to be the chief metropolitan stipendiary magistrate.

(4) The following provisions shall apply to each metropolitan stipendiary magistrate, that is to say—

(a) he shall by virtue of his office be a justice of the peace for each of the London commission areas and for the counties of Essex, Hertfordshire, Kent and Surrey;

(b) he shall not during his continuance in office practise as a barrister or solicitor;

(c) he may be removed from office by the Lord Chancellor for inability or misbehaviour.

(5) A metropolitan stipendiary magistrate who is by virtue of his office a justice of the peace for any area mentioned in paragraph (a) of subsection (4) of this section shall not by reason only of his being a justice of the peace for that area by virtue of that office—

(a) act as a member of a court of quarter sessions for that area; or

(b) be qualified to be chosen under section 13(2) of the Justices of the Peace Act 1949 as chairman or deputy chairman of the justices for a petty sessional division of that area or to vote under that subsection at the election of any such chairman or deputy chairman.

(6) The Lord Chancellor may assign metropolitan stipendiary magistrates to petty sessional divisions constituted under section 14 of this Act and may alter any assignment under this subsection, but the assignment of a magistrate to a particular division shall not preclude him from exercising jurisdiction for any other division of the inner London area.

(7) Metropolitan stipendiary magistrates shall sit at such courthouses provided for the inner London area under the following provisions of this Act, on such days and at such times as may be determined by or in accordance with directions given by the Lord Chancellor from time to time.

(8) The chief metropolitan stipendiary magistrate shall cause to be held at least once in every quarter of a year a meeting of all the metropolitan stipendiary magistrates or such of them as are able to attend and, if present, shall preside over the meeting.