Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the number of people able to apply to become a judge.

The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), the Legal Services Board (LSB) and the three legal professions on actions to expand the pool of candidates ready to apply for a judicial career.

The JDF published its priorities and actions for 2023 in December 2022: https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/JDF-Priorities.pdf which includes actions we are taking as a Department. This includes support for lawyers from groups under-represented in the judiciary through the Pre-Application Judicial Education programme and reviewing the application processes and barriers for non-traditional lawyers, such as legal academics and in-house lawyers. On 11 May, a Statutory Instrument was laid, which subject to parliamentary approval, will extend the eligibility of Chartered Institute of Legal Executive (CILEX) lawyers, with seven years’ post qualification experience to apply directly to the judicial offices of Upper Tribunal Judge, Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal and Recorder.