Courts services in the UK are delivered by HM Courts Service for England and Wales, the Northern Ireland Court Service and the Scottish Court Service.  The court structure is complex with each type of court and division having its own responsibilities administrating:

• Magistrates Courts
• Youth Court
• County Courts
• Crown Courts
• High Court
• Court of Appeal

The Tribunals Service and the House of Lords are not administered by HM Courts Service.

The Northern Ireland Court Service reports to Parliament through the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and has a similar structure to that for England and Wales.  The Scottish Court Service is responsible for: District Courts; Sheriff Courts; High Court of Judiciary; and the Court of Session.

There are approximately 60,000 employees working in courts services, of which 33,500 are judges and magistrates, in approximately 836 organisations.  In terms of the number of organisations, it is the second largest sub-sector in justice comprising 21% of the sector organisations.  The courts sub-sector employs 11% of the total number of sector employees.  There are no employees in private or voluntary types of organisations, but 27% of organisations employ volunteers.

Workforce profile:

• 66% of UK courts services staff are female, compared with 49% in the UK workforce
• Scotland had the lowest proportion of female staff (58%)
• 30% of court services staff are aged 16-34 years in England and Wales, compared with 37% in the UK
• 24% of court services staff are 16-34 years in Scotland
• 50% of staff are aged 16-35 years in Northern Ireland
• 20% are aged over 55 years in England, Wales and Scotland, compared with 25% over 50 in the UK workforce
• 12% of staff in England and Wales are from a minority ethnic group, compared with 9% in the general population
• 2.8% of staff in Scotland are from a minority ethnic group, compared with 2% of the Scottish population

43% of the court services workforce are employed within associate professional and technical occupations, and 33% work within administrative/secretarial occupations.  The main recruitment difficulties are for ‘other support’ staff, administrative/secretarial staff and professionals.  There are staff employed in manual and ancillary occupations.

Only 13% of organisations report internal skills gaps.  In probation services, the problem is more acute with 61% of organisations reporting skills gaps.  IT and computing skills are frequently reported as skills gaps.

Source: Court Services SNA 2006, Skills for Justice Briefing Paper 2006, Courts LMI 2005 and UK Skill Needs Assessment 2005