Lady Hale takes up the reins

Brenda Hale is a family law specialist who was called to the Bar in 1969, teaching law at Manchester University until 1984 and later practising as a barrister in Manchester. She replaces Lord Neuberger, who is retiring, in October. She is the first woman to hold the premier position in the judiciary, an achievement that tops a career of firsts—she was also the first woman to become a Lady Justice of Appeal and the first, and only, female justice at the Supreme Court.

The diversity of the judiciary came under scrutiny earlier this week, with the release this week of judicial diversity statistics for 2017. These showed that, as of April 2017, women account for 28% of the more than 3,000 court judges in England and Wales, and 45% of tribunal judges. As a general rule, the higher the court, the fewer salaried women judges—24% of the Court of Appeal (up from 18% in 2014); 22% of the High Court (up from 18% in 2014); 28% of Registrars, Masters, Costs Judges and District Judges (Principal Registry of the Family Division); 27% of Circuit Judges; 38% of District Judges (County Courts); and 35% of District Judges (Magistrates’ Courts).

Robin Allen QC, Chair of the Bar Council's Equality and Diversity Committee, said: ‘The progress made in recruiting more female judges is to be welcomed; but there is an urgent need to increase the number of part-time salaried posts which offer a useful combination of certainty and flexibility for the large number of lawyers with caring responsibilities.

‘The Bar Council is working with the Judicial Diversity Forum to promote new schemes of positive action which could help to change this. The Lord Chancellor is urged to adopt and promote them.’

Another major discrepancy in the judiciary, however, is between barristers and solicitors. Two-thirds of court judges, and one third of tribunal judges are barristers. And while the dominance of the Bar may be a sore point for some solicitors, the judiciary faces a wider crisis of recruitment, as the Review Body on Senior Salaries’ annual report revealed earlier this week. It reported the Lord Chief Justice’s concerns about low morale at the Bench, an ‘unprecedented number of unfilled vacancies’ in the High Court this year and a ‘sudden increase in recent and forthcoming retirements from the higher judiciary’.

Notably, 34 of about 150 senior judges were due to retire this year, more than double the norm. The judiciary, the report noted, has been beset by an increased workload, dissatisfaction with the tax treatment of judicial pensions, increased numbers of litigants in person and a sense of not being valued by the government. This led the Lord Chief Justice to believe more than 100 new High Court judges could be required in the next five years.