Judges should get an above-inflation 6% pay increase in a bid to address the recruitment crisis leaving gaps across the board.

That was the recommendation of the Senior Salaries Review Body, which advises the government on public sector pay and which published its annual report yesterday.

The independent body reported ‘significant and persistent’ problems in filling some judicial vacancies which have got worse in the last year. In the last district (civil) judge recruitment campaign, just 49 out of 100 vacancies were filled, while even where the last drive to take on circuit bench judges was successful, the ‘quality’ of applicants is in ‘long-term decline’.

While pay is not the only factor affecting recruitment, the SSRB said a 6% increase across all judicial role should have a positive effect. It was careful to stress that the blanket increase recommendation was not a sign that salaries levels are set correctly, with more evidence needed to provide specific proposals for each judicial role.

Surveys on the pre-appointment earnings of recently-appointed judges showed that most had taken significant reductions in pay on leaving legal practice to join the bench.

The Bar Council reported last year that self-employed KCs earn between £200,000 and £900,000 on average – meaning they would have to accept a significant cut if they wanted to apply for the judiciary.

The SSRB also pointed to evidence that many judges feel their workload is too high and that they are not paid a reasonable salary for the work they do.

‘The written evidence we received from judicial associations this year highlighted a large number of areas of dissatisfaction, in particular the condition of the court estate, insufficient administrative support, and heavy workloads,’ added the report. ‘Although they welcomed last year’s pay award, many judicial associations were frustrated with the long-term decline in real pay and called for this to be fully or partially reversed.’

The SSRB is particularly concerned about recruitment to the circuit bench, where there were shortfalls from 2016-17 for six years.

‘Taken together, we are concerned the roles may no longer be sufficiently attractive to experienced legal practitioners,’ it added.

The SSRB recommendations are not automatically adopted by the government, although they will clearly be influential when ministers come to decide on salary policy.

Calls for judicial pay to increase come at the same time as the chancellor Rachel Reeves has set out a series of spending cuts after the Treasury identified a ‘forecast overspend’ of almost £22bn for this year.

But the government has agreed to teachers and members of the armed forces receiving pay rises above inflation, while junior doctors have been offered a two-year pay deal worth 22% on average.

 

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