Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what happens to the disciplinary records of (a) judges and (b) prison officers when they change (i) gender and (ii) name.

1. The Lord Chancellor and Lord Chief Justice are jointly responsible for judicial discipline. They are supported by the independent Judicial Conduct Investigations Office, which keeps a record of disciplinary findings made against Judicial Office Holders. Those records are kept indefinitely, and any disciplinary sanctions taken against Judicial Office Holders are published on the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office website. A subsequent change of gender and/name by a Judicial Office Holder would have no bearing on the retention of disciplinary records. Should a Judicial Office Holder with a published disciplinary sanction against them subsequently change their name, a note would be made to the published sanction which would identify this.

2. In relation to prison officers, processes are available to support the changing of an individual’s name and other characteristics within departmental HR records. Regardless of an individual’s gender or name, disciplinary records are retained in line with departmental document retention policies.