Officials are suspended after Filkin inquiry into courts

A number of senior officials in charge of London magistrates' courts have been suspended after an inquiry into financial irregularities by Elizabeth Filkin, the former parliamentary standards watchdog. It is understood that the investigation centres on five courts.

A statement by the Greater London Magistrates' Courts Authority (GLMCA) confirmed yesterday that Ms Filkin had been asked to "undertake a confidential internal review".

It added: "The authority received Ms Filkin's report and considered it on 29 August 2002. The report concerns a number of employees in respect of whom there may be further internal proceedings."

A spokesman for the authority, which took control of the budgets of all London's magistrates' courts in April 2001, declined to comment further on the matter.

The GLMCA is the largest magistrates' courts service in England and Wales, serving more than seven million people. Ninety-five per cent of criminal justice cases are dealt with in magistrates' courts.

Last year Merseyside Police arrested a district judge, six court clerks and a solicitor who once represented professional football players over allegations of corruption.

Lord Irvine of Lairg, the Lord Chancellor, said after those arrests: "I take all allegations of corruption and the impact they may have on public confidence very seriously.

"The criminal justice system demands the highest integrity from the people who work within it and there is no room for anyone who is proven to have failed to meet these exacting standards."

Mike Langdon, acting Assistant Chief Constable of Merseyside Police, said the arrests followed an investigation by Merseyside Police and had been carried out in co-operation with the Lord Chancellor's Department, the Magistrates Courts Committee and the Crown Prosecution Service.

Ms Filkin, who was Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, the MPs' sleaze watchdog, for three years, left her post in February. Many believe she was the victim of a "whispering campaign" – or as she put it a "shouting campaign" – designed to undermine both her and her office.

Ms Filkin said she realised it was time to go when she was invited to reapply for her own job last year.