The Ministry of Justice is considering whether the minimum level of days a part-time judge must sit is hindering progress on judicial diversity, the department has revealed in a newly published document.
Latest judicial diversity statistics show the number of solicitor judges remains stubbornly flat despite efforts to boost diversity on the bench.
In an evidence pack for the Senior Salaries Review Body, which has been asked to review the judicial salary structure, the ministry says fee-paid judges are generally expected to be available for a minimum of 30 days of sittings or 30 days of judicial business. Older terms and conditions may refer to a guarantee of 15 sitting days, or an expectation of 15 or 20 sitting or judicial business days.
‘MoJ continues to explore whether the availability of high sitting levels among fee-paid judges may be a contributing factor in the relative attractiveness of salaried judicial office, and whether the minimum level of sittings might make a fee-paid judicial role less attractive to employed legal professionals, who are the future pipeline of salaried office and can help improve the diversity of the judiciary,’ the evidence pack states.
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Discussing judicial diversity with the Commons justice select committee this month, the lady chief justice said she had been ‘working flat out’ with solicitors.
‘What I hear from magic circle firms is, “well, our best people are so busy and making us so much money, we can’t possibly release them to do six weeks’ sitting. And I am trying to appeal to their broader social consciences to understand that, just as they can do pro bono work, so they can contribute to society in a broader way by allowing their solicitors to become members of the judiciary,' Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill said.
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