Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary of the Judicial Diversity Statistics 2019 on 11 July, on what grounds it was decided not to report on the prevalence of disability among judicial office-holders.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The 2019 Judicial Diversity Statistics provide data on the diversity of the judiciary, as of 1 April 2019. Disability information is currently collected on a non-mandatory basis by self-declaration. Disability information of judicial office holders is not presented as part of the statistics as, for those who do not declare a disability, it is not currently possible to differentiate between those without a disability and those who chose not to respond to the disability question.
From 2019/2020, Judicial Office are changing the way they collect diversity information to help resolve this issue. This will allow judges to access all of their diversity information on a regular basis to ensure it is up to date and accurate. Judicial Office will begin to collect more robust disability information, alongside other diversity information, with the aim of including it in the published statistics, subject to appropriate declaration rates.
Asked by: Lord Shinkwin (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask Her Majesty's Government, following the publication by the Courts and Tribunals Judiciary of the Judicial Diversity Statistics 2019 on 11 July, what consideration they have given to reporting statistics on disability in the judiciary.
Answered by Lord Keen of Elie - Shadow Minister (Justice)
The 2019 Judicial Diversity Statistics provide data on the diversity of the judiciary, as of 1 April 2019. Disability information is currently collected on a non-mandatory basis by self-declaration. Disability information of judicial office holders is not presented as part of the statistics as, for those who do not declare a disability, it is not currently possible to differentiate between those without a disability and those who chose not to respond to the disability question.
From 2019/2020, Judicial Office are changing the way they collect diversity information to help resolve this issue. This will allow judges to access all of their diversity information on a regular basis to ensure it is up to date and accurate. Judicial Office will begin to collect more robust disability information, alongside other diversity information, with the aim of including it in the published statistics, subject to appropriate declaration rates.