Bar Council responds to latest judicial diversity statistics
The Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF) has published the annual ‘Diversity of the judiciary combined statistics report’ for 2023-24.
The JDF says the report “shows some encouraging figures on the representation of Asian and mixed ethnicity individuals but there is still much more work to be done. For instance, the representation of Black and other ethnic minorities in the judiciary has remained the same over the past ten years.”
Responding to the publication, Sam Townend KC, Chair of the Bar Council, said:
“We welcome the publication of the judicial diversity statistics and the gradual progress being made.
“We note that ethnic minority candidates continue to be more likely to apply and less likely to be recommended and this warrants further investigation by the Judicial Appointments Commission. We, therefore, welcome the Lady Chief Justice’s commitment to focus on appointment of Black judges, as well as disabled judges, as a priority.
“Progression within a career at the Bar of those from under-represented groups is a priority for the Bar Council. Later this year we will be publishing our progress report on race at the Bar following the landmark report in 2021. In the meantime, initiatives such as the pre-application judicial education programme and our judicial appointments mentoring programme offer support, insight and the possibility of improvement of skills.”
NOTES
‘Diversity of the judiciary: Legal professions, new appointments and current post-holders – 2024 Statistics’ is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/diversity-of-the-judiciary-2024-statistics
The Judicial Diversity Forum news release ‘New statistics highlight encouraging increases in judicial diversity’ is available at: https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/new-statistics-highlight-encouraging-increases-in-judicial-diversity/
At the annual press conference, the Lady Chief Justice said: “We are doing much better with women, certainly up to the higher levels, and we are making progress with certain ethnic minorities. We are not making enough progress when it comes to black people in particular. We do not have enough black judges, and that's a priority for me to look at this year, and also actually disabled judges. That's something I don't think we've looked at sufficiently in the past and those are two of our focus areas under our strategy for this year.” See the full transcript at: https://www.judiciary.uk/lady-chief-justice-annual-press-conference-2024/
For more information about the pre-application judicial education programme visit: https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/support-for-barristers/wellbeing-personal-career-support/pre-application-judicial-education-programme-paje.html
For information about the Bar Council judicial appointments mentoring programme visit: https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/support-for-barristers/wellbeing-personal-career-support/mentoring/silk-and-judicial-appointments.html