Explanatory note

These Rules provide for a new rule 6(2) in the Justices of the Peace (Size and Chairmanship of Bench) Rules 1986. Rule 6 of the 1986 Rules introduced a restriction on eligibility for election as chairman of the justices where a person has held office for five consecutive years or more and less than three years have elapsed since he last held office unless the justices decide that he should be eligible for re-election.

Under these Rules that restriction on eligibility for re-election may be lifted by such a decision of the justices in the case of a sitting chairman but not otherwise.