Unified Courts Agency

Professor Sir Ronald De Witt has been appointed the chief executive of the new Unified Courts Agency, created under the Courts Act 2003, which came into effect in September. The new executive agency, which the Lord Chancellor has described as ‘the most important court reforms for decades’, will be responsible for running all courts below the House of Lords – Court of Appeal, High Court, Crown Court, county courts and magistrates courts. The Unified Courts Agency will replace the Court Service and Magistrates Courts Committees when it comes into effect in April 2005. Until then, it will run as a shadow agency.