Department for Constitutional Affairs -

Home > Publications > Annual Reports > Departmental Reports

Chapter 3: Judicial Appointments

Judicial appointments

Training and development

Complaints handling

Stipendiary Magistracy

Lay Magistracy

Queen's Counsel

Selection

TABLE 2: Judicial officers in post

TABLE 3: Number of judicial appointments

We are committed to guaranteeing the integrity and independence of all appointments to lay and professional judicial office. Procedures for recruitment, appointment, training and appraisal must be maintained, and developed where necessary, to secure this.

LCD Strategic Objective: To enable the Lord Chancellor to appoint or recommend for appointment sufficient numbers of judges, magistrates and other judicial post-holders of the right quality and to safeguard their constitutional independence.

Judicial appointments

The Lord Chancellor is committed to ensuring that appointments to judicial office should be made on the basis of merit and irrespective of ethnic origin, gender, marital status, sexual orientation, political affiliation, religion or disability, except where the disability prevents the fulfilment of the physical requirements of the office. He has actively encouraged applications for judicial appointments and Silk from ethnic minority and female lawyers. He addressed the Woman Lawyer Conference in April 1998 and addressed the Minority Lawyers' Conference for the second time in March 1999. In March 1998 he wrote to Heads of Chambers seeking their support in encouraging applications from ethnic minority lawyers.
The Lord Chancellor introduced flexibility in part-time sitting arrangements where, for example, candidates have taken career breaks for family reasons and he has increased the upper age limit for appointment to Assistant Recorder to 53. The Lord Chancellor has commissioned research into the factors that affect the decisions to apply for judicial appointment and Silk among female and ethnic minority practitioners.
The Lord Chancellor will present his previously announced annual report to Parliament on the operation of the appointments system; the first report will cover the period 1998/99 and will be published in autumn 1999. Only a few tribunal posts now remain where competitions have yet to be held.
In February 1998 an advertisement was placed in The Times and professional journals inviting applications from eligible practitioners and Circuit Judges for appointment as a High Court Judge. There were 86 applications received. The Lord Chancellor reserves the right to recommend for appointment practitioners who do not apply. It is anticipated that applications will again be invited in April 1999.
» To the Top
Training and development
Two development schemes have been introduced. The first will allow an individual to 'work shadow' a judge to learn what it is like to sit judicially. In the second, District and Circuit Judges will act as mentors to advise and guide their more junior colleagues in the part-time judiciary.
The Lord Chancellor has indicated his intention to improve arrangements for the appraisal of those who sit on a part-time basis. The pilot scheme monitoring the performance of deputy District judges taking place on the Wales and Chester Circuit has been extended for a further year.
The Judicial Studies Board provides training for judges and advice and assistance on the training and development of lay magistrates and the Chairmen and members of tribunals. The Judicial Studies Board is planning training for judges, magistrates and legally qualified tribunal chairmen as part of the implementation of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Lord Chancellor and the Home Secretary have set aside for this purpose a total of £4.5m in the year 1999/00. Details of the achievements of the Board during 1998/99 can be found in the Board's Annual Report.
» To the Top
Complaints handling
The Lord Chancellor introduced a new protocol for the handling of complaints about the personal conduct of members of the judiciary. A Judicial Correspondence Unit was set up in June 1998 to improve complaints handling by transferring responsibility for all casework to a single dedicated team.
» To the Top
Stipendiary Magistracy
A consultation paper issued on 1 April 1998 found widespread support for the unification of the Metropolitan and Provincial Stipendiary Magistrates into a national bench with a single head. This unification is to be achieved by the Access to Justice Bill. In addition Stipendiary Magistrates are to be given a new title of District Judge (Magistrates' Court). Unification will lead to greater flexibility in deployment and give Stipendiary Magistrates a national identity with a proper judicial title.
» To the Top
Lay Magistracy
The Lord Chancellor issued new Directions to his Advisory Committees on Justices of the Peace which implemented those recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee accepted by Government. The new selection procedures for the appointment of lay magistrates is more open and accountable and ensures consistency of approach and the adoption of best practice throughout England and Wales.
The policy of seeking a political balance in the lay magistracy has been supported by successive Lord Chancellors this century. However, it has often been argued that it can no longer be seen as a guarantor of social balance. Therefore, the Lord Chancellor has issued a consultation paper seeking views on whether a better measure of social balance should now be substituted. In conjunction with the Central Office of Information, the Lord Chancellor commissioned a study to determine how applicants for the lay magistracy can best be attracted from a wider social spectrum. An extensive publicity and advertising campaign is planned.
The Lord Chancellor has appointed seven blind or sight-impaired lay magistrates on an experimental basis. They are currently undergoing training and their progress will be monitored to assess the feasibility of making similar appointments in the future.
In 1997 the Lord Chancellor appointed 1,283 lay magistrates (611 men and 672 women). 6.5% of appointments were from ethnic minorities.
» To the Top
Queen's Counsel
The Lord Chancellor remains committed to recommending for appointment as Queen's Counsel those advocates who are recognised by the judiciary and professional community as distinguished in their profession. In 1998, 60 Queen's Counsel (Silks) were appointed from among a total of 511 applications. Appointments currently being considered for 1999 will be announced on Maundy Thursday 1999.
» To the Top
Selection
The selection of judicial office holders is a thorough and resource intensive process. It involves detailed consultation procedures with very large numbers of serving judges. For the majority of appointments, interviews are held involving a member of judicial group, a judge and a lay assessor. For example, 111 interviews were held in 1998/99 for District Judges, involving 26 interviewing days and 15 external assessors, for an expected 37 appointments. More detailed information on judicial appointments will be given in the Lord Chancellor's first annual report on the operation of the judicial appointments system to be published later this year.

TABLE 2: Judicial officers in post

TABLE 3: Number of judicial appointments

» To the Top

» Return to Departmental Report contents

» Return to contents