Judges raise safety fears and say concern over pay is denting morale.
First published by Jonathan Ames in The Times
Nearly two thirds of judges have complained that conditions in court have worsened over the past two years, as concern mounts over safety and crumbling buildings.
Anecdotal horror stories have been rife for several years of leaking pipes that cause ceilings to fall, overflowing lavatories, heating systems that either never come on or never go off. Research suggests that those individual tales of woe — often broadcast on social media by lawyers and judges — are widespread across the country’s courts.
In common with its predecessors, the 2022 survey was conducted online by researchers at University College London. The survey was voluntary and anonymous, with between 90 and 95 per cent of judges responding. All salaried and fee-paid judges in England and Wales and UK non-devolved tribunals were offered the chance to participate.
The researchers found that dissatisfaction ran right through the judiciary and high up the ladder, with 51 per cent of Court of Appeal judges telling the fourth biennial judicial attitudes survey that their working environments are unacceptably poor. Some 54 per cent of district judges in magistrates’ courts reported that they feared for their personal safety in court, and 27 per cent of circuit judges, who mostly sit in the crown courts, which hear serious criminal trials, feared for their personal safety.
Pay remained an issue of consternation for many judges, with 55 per cent of those sitting on all ranks of the bench complaining that what they considered to be low wages were affecting their morale. That represented a 3 per cent increase in two years. However, the researchers noted that dissatisfaction over pay had dropped since 2016, when 63 per cent of judges said the issue was affecting their morale.
Nonetheless, there were signs that the cost of living crisis was hitting judges. The report found that a majority of all salaried judges across all posts said they had suffered a loss of net earnings over the past two years.
Salaries for full-time judges as of the beginning of this month range from slightly more than £118,000 for district judges to more than £159,000 for senior crown court judges. The most senior judge in England and Wales, the lord chief justice, has a salary of about £275,000, nearly £30,000 more than the president of the Supreme Court, the UK’s highest bench.
Between 90 and 95 per cent of judges in England and Wales have responded to the official survey over the four conducted since 2014. The latest figures were published against the backdrop of anecdotal reports of deteriorating court buildings over the past few years.
The Times reported two years ago on complaints around a litany of dangerous issues, from judges getting electric shocks from faulty light fittings to water pouring out of smoke alarms. At the time, there were reported delays to work to prevent outbreaks of legionnaires’ disease in several court buildings.
The latest survey for the first time asked judges about bullying, harassment and discrimination. The researchers found that 11 per cent of full-time salaried judges reported that they had been bullied, with district judges sitting in the magistrates’ courts reporting the highest incidence. It was reported that in more than 30 per cent of those cases they had been bullied by their own leadership judges, while in 27 per cent of cases the bully had been a colleague of the same level.
Most of that bullying over the past two years had not been officially reported. The researchers found that about 70 per cent of incidents in which judges considered that they had been bullied, harassed or discriminated against were not reported.
A majority of full-time judges had a negative view of one of the by-products of the pandemic — an increase in remote hearings. A total of 54 per cent said that digital hearings had a negative impact on the way that the parties behaved during hearings. Only 23 per cent said that remote hearings had a positive impact on the number of hearings that could be completed.
Philip Robertson, director of policy at the Bar Council, which represents barristers, says that it is “not surprising that many judges say their working life is getting worse, they are at the coalface when it comes to trying to manage the backlogs on a daily basis”. He points out that several sections of the courts and tribunals judiciary are “carrying vacancies, and these results will not encourage people to apply”.
Lubna Shuja, president of the Law Society, the solicitors’ body, says that the “shambolic state of our court buildings demonstrates the lack of investment in our justice system and is a contributor to the huge backlog of cases”. She adds that “there has not only been a failure to invest in the infrastructure but a failure to invest in people too — the judges, court staff, solicitors and barristers who keep the wheels of justice turning”.
A spokesman for HM Courts & Tribunal Service said that “up to £184 million” was being invested in maintenance and repairs. In addition, the government was working with the City of London Corporation to build a new court on Fleet Street that would open in 2026.