Statistics point to a healthy bench

Judges rarely get ill, with considerably fewer sick days recorded compared to the average for civil servants, according to evidence supplied by the judiciary to the Senior Salaries Review Board. No Court of Appeal judge has taken a sick day in the past two years. Similarly, no Recorder, Judge Advocate or Deputy Judge Advocate has taken a day off sick in the past two years. Seven High Court judges took a total of 393 days off in 2016/17 but no sick days are recorded for 2015/2016. Circuit Judges had suffered the most—156 judges took 3,079 days off in 2015/16 and 185 judges were ill on 3,410 days in 2016/17. In total, across the judiciary, 9,965 days were lost due to sickness absence last year, and 9, 321 in 2015/16.