Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the diversity of judges.

The Lord Chancellor has a joint statutory duty with the Lord Chief Justice and the Judicial Appointments Commission to encourage judicial diversity.

The MoJ is working with the Lord Chief Justice and the Judicial Appointments Commission to consider all practical actions that would impact positively on diversity, assess the impact of our existing activities and measure progress

The MoJ also strongly supports the work of the Judicial Diversity Forum which coordinates action by MoJ, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the judiciary and the legal professional bodies to increase judicial diversity. The Judicial Appointments Commission, judiciary and legal professions undertake a range of outreach events, shadowing programmes, pre-application support and mentoring to attract and support eligible candidates, which includes programmes specifically targeted at underrepresented groups to encourage applications from diverse applicants.