Two magistrates have been removed from their post after failing to complete the compulsory training modules.
Jill Venables and Jamie Peterson, both of the Cardiff bench, were removed from office for failing to complete the compulsory core training required of a magistrate, without reasonable excuse.
A spokesperson for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: ‘On appointment, magistrates sign a declaration and undertaking which includes a commitment to complete all compulsory core training. The undertaking also provides that a magistrate should resign if they fail to complete that training within the required timescale without an acceptable reason.’
Both Venables and Peterson failed to complete three compulsory core training requirements within the required timescales. The training, designated as essential between 2024 and 2026, included domestic abuse training, imposition guidelines e-learning and Sentencing Act 2026 e-learning.
The JCIO said neither Venables nor Peterson engaged with correspondence about the outstanding training requirements. They also did not respond to the Wales Conduct Advisory Committee’s correspondence about her failure to complete the outstanding modules.
The lord chancellor and the lady chief justice removed Venables and Peterson from office.
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‘They considered that failure to complete compulsory core training is a serious matter because completion of such training is a fundamental condition of appointment and continued service as a magistrate and is essential to maintaining public confidence in the magistracy,’ the JCIO said.
It said Venables’ and Peterson’s ‘repeated failure to complete three compulsory training requirements and failure to respond to correspondence about those deficiencies’ meant removal from office was ‘the appropriate and proportionate sanction’.
