Events & training

The Centre holds a variety events, from practice sharing workshops to policy report launches, across our diverse areas of work. Never miss an invite, and sign up to one of our newsletters.

You can also watch all our past event recordings over on our YouTube channel. 

Expert voices: A fast track to injustice? Perspectives on the Single Justice Procedure

Join us on the 23rd October from12:30- 13:30 for the next of our online 'Expert Voices' events, looking at the Single Justice Procedure.

Most people assume that, if they are accused of a crime, they will have their day in court. However, courts have long had to deal with the fact that many people, when summoned, fail to appear. The Single Justice Procedure (SJP), introduced in 2015, is a process for dealing with minor criminal offences without a court hearing. It involves a single magistrate, supported by a legal adviser, deciding the outcome of adult, summary-only, non-imprisonable offences, when a defendant has pleaded guilty or has not responded to notification that they are being prosecuted. This system has come under heavy criticism in recent months, with multiple stories in the media highlighting that vulnerable people are being convicted despite having strong mitigating circumstances and often when they were not aware of the proceedings.

Please sign up here to join us on 23rd October at 12:30 to 13:30pm to hear our expert panel discuss the Single Justice Procedure. Our panel is: Jane Smith, Chair of the Magistrates' Association Central & North London Branch, Penelope Gibbs, Director of Transform Justice, and Andrew Nicholson, a retired senior legal adviser. The event will be chaired by Kevin Sadler, trustee of the Centre, and a retired senior civil servant whose last role was Chief Executive of His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service. The event will include a Q&A session at the end.