England: Hundreds of Crown Court judges face disqualification

Recorders must sit for at least 15 or 30 days per year, depending on experience, to keep their role.

However, as many as 70 per cent of the recorders are at risk of losing their positions because they cannot meet the annual requirements in the wake of court closures.

Barristers have told The Times that ministers and court bosses would need to authorise a “mass waiver” to allow part-time judges to continue to sit in the next financial year.

Lawyers said budget cuts are responsible for the problem. Lady Justice Macur said in September that Crown Court sitting days would be reduced by 15 per cent, from 97,400 in 2018-19 to a projected 82,300 for 2019-20. She said this was a “political decision” made by the Ministry of Justice.

Ministers reinstated 700 days for this financial year and 4,500 for the next one, though bar leaders said this fell “woefully short” of making up the difference, which stands at 27,000.

Caroline Goodwin QC, chairwoman of the Criminal Bar Association, said concerns about budget cuts were “not just about ensuring judges and recorders being able to fulfil their duties, but preventing the corrosive impact these delays have on the most vulnerable in our society.

“If prosecutions are abandoned due to victims pulling out over delays to investigations and court dates, we risk leaving justice undone.”

A spokeswoman for the judiciary said: “There is no question of any recorders losing their authorisation to sit in crime as a result of the reduction in crown court sitting days.”