[File Photo]

The Ministry of Justice is working to enhance accessibility to Justice of Peace (JP) services across communities.

Minister Siromi Turaga says there are currently 596 JPs nationwide, with 278 in the Central and Eastern Division, 215 in the Western Division, and 68 in the Northern Division.

Turaga states they anticipate boosting these numbers in response to the surge in applications they’ve received.

“We have gone through our awareness and talanoa session and reached out to members of the communities as the need for those former civil servants or those in the community to apply for JP so that they speed up the services. One good example is that in the island of Koro, there is only one JP, in the island of Gau, there is only one and in Levuka there are few.”

Turaga adds that through continued talanoa sessions and awareness efforts, they aim to ramp up the number of JPs this year to meet the rising public demand.