A report on the year’s appointments of judges and magistrates shows a better picture for women, but there are still too few ethnic minority post-holders The latest figures on judicial diversity over the past decade reveal that the percentage of women appointed has risen from 24 to 38 per cent, but the appointment of black judges has remained at 1 per cent.
When she was sworn in last year, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill was the first woman to be appointed lady chief justice for England and Wales.
At her first press conference this year, the lady chief justice, Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill, said that the judiciary was “not making enough progress when it comes to black people” and pledged to look at the situation this year as a priority. Commenting on the latest figures, Carr notes the increase in proportion of women, but highlights the lack of progress among ethnic minority groups.
Stephanie Needleman, the legal director of the campaign group Justice, says: “A judiciary that markedly fails to reflect the ethnic, gender and social composition of the people they serve risks seriously undermining the public legitimacy of our legal system and the trust of those who use it.”
More diverse judges and magistrates “would also make for better overall decision-making by bringing different experiences to the table”, she argues.
“Tackling the barriers faced by underrepresented groups to become members of the judiciary and magistracy is urgent for the health of our justice system,” Needleman adds.
A £1 million campaign to recruit more ethnic minority and working-class magistrates has failed to make a significant impact — while the percentage of black judges across the bench has remained unchanged for a decade.
This picture — revealed in the latest figures on judicial diversity, published last week by the Ministry of Justice — has prompted calls for diversity targets and a review of the process for recruiting magistrates.
More than 34,000 people expressed an interest in becoming a magistrate in response to a government recruitment campaign in 2022, which included advertisements on Capital Xtra, Radio X, Heart and LBC radio stations. But the figures reveal that it has failed to make any change in the overall percentage of magistrates from ethnic minority backgrounds — which remains at 13 per cent.
Of the 14,576 magistrates in England and Wales, most are white, middle-class professionals, with 57 per cent being women.
During the year 2023-24, 4,025 individuals applied to become magistrates — 70 per cent were white, 16 per cent were Asian and 9 per cent were black. Of those appointed, 84 per cent were white (a success rate of 44 per cent), while only 7 per cent (21 per cent success rate) were Asian and 5 per cent (24 per cent success rate) were black.
The figures show that 11 per cent of applicants had attended private schools, but 74 per cent were state educated. Across England and Wales generally, about 6.5 per cent of students attend fee-paying schools.
Those magistrates who attended private schools were slightly more likely to succeed — 46 per cent made the grade, accounting for 14 per cent of appointments overall, while 41 per cent of those from state school backgrounds were appointed — accounting for 78 per cent of all posts.
Looking at the socio-economic background, 77 per cent of applications were middle-class professionals and those in management positions, while only 7 per cent worked in clerical, technical or manual jobs. Of those appointed, 81 per cent were in professional and management positions and just 8 per cent from more working-class roles.
On average, those who applied to the magistracy in 2023-24 were younger than magistrates already in post — 53 per cent of applications were from candidates aged 50 or over, compared with 81 per cent of magistrates in post.
Commenting on the figures, Tom Franklin, the chief executive of the Magistrates’ Association, stresses the “fundamental” importance for the magistracy to “reflect the communities it serves”.
Noting some “encouraging signs”, he says there is “still a very long way to go”. In particular, he highlights the “disappointing” success rate for applicants from ethnic minorities compared with their white counterparts, and suggests a review of the recruitment process to identify the cause.
To increase the number of applications by people from working-class backgrounds, Franklin calls for measures to encourage employers to enable their employees to be magistrates, greater flexibility in court sittings to accommodate those working fixed hours and an overhaul of the magistrates’ expenses system, so that magistrates, who are volunteers, are not left out of pocket.
Penelope Gibbs, the director of the campaign group Transform Justice, argues that the recruitment process has “failed” to produce a magistracy that better reflects society, suggesting that it “seems to be biased in favour of those who are white, middle class and educated at private school”.
Gibbs goes on to warn that “if the magistracy cannot recruit diverse candidates, it will lose the credibility of the people and of witnesses and defendants”.
Turning to the professional judiciary, the figures show that over the past decade, the number of women judges has risen from 24 to 38 per cent, while Asian judges have increased slightly from 3 to 5 per cent. But the percentage of black judges has remained unchanged at 1 per cent.
At the most senior levels, there is no black judge in the Court of Appeal or on the full-time High Court bench. There are two black deputy High Court judges, but that is down from five in 2018-19.
The figures also show that the judiciary continues to be dominated by barristers, with solicitors making up 31 per cent — a drop over the past decade of 6 percentage points.
As first reported by Catherine Baksi
Thursday July 18 2024, 12.01am BST, The Times