The Bar Council has called on the legal profession to work together to make the judiciary more diverse, following “unacceptable” statistics released by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC).
JAC published figures this week for appointments from 1 April 2015 to 31 March 2016. Some 2,439 candidates applied during 22 selection exercises, from which 308 recommendations for judicial appointment were made.
Women made up 140 of 308 recommendations (45%). Black and minority ethic (BAME) candidates represented 387 applications (16%) and 28 recommendations (9%).
Some nine candidates (3%) who declared a disability were recommended. More than half of all recommended candidates were aged between 46 and 65 years old. Some 5% of recommended candidates identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual.
However, the Bar Council said the figures showed black and minority ethnic (BAME) candidates were more likely to be excluded at both the shortlisting and recommendations stages of the Recorder process.
Sam Mercer, head of equality and diversity at the Bar Council, said 20% of white applicants for Recorder appointments were shortlisted, compared to 10% of BAME candidates. Of those shortlisted, 46% of white applicants were recommended, compared to 29% of BAME applicants.
Mercer said: “If you are a white lawyer applying to become a Recorder you have a one in 10 chance of success. If you belong to a minority ethnic group, that drops to one in 33.
“White applicants are three times more likely to succeed. This inequality is unacceptable. We urgently need to work in partnership with organisations across the legal sector, and with government, to find out why this distortion is occurring and take immediate measures for correction.”
For the first time, the diversity data includes senior judicial posts above the High Court between 2012 and 2015. There were 74 applications and 21 recommendations, of which women represented nine (12%) and four (19%), respectively.
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