Page 15 - Judicial Diversity Update report

processes to open up routes to the bench for diverse candidates. In
particular, it recognised the need to create a genuine career path to enable
talented judges to enjoy a real prospect of moving up to senior
appointments and measures to make the senior judiciary more attractive
for non-traditional candidates, including more appealing working
conditions.

1.17. In follow up discussions, we encountered considerable objections to our key
recommendation of “targets with teeth”, which was misunderstood as a call for
quotas. They are not the same thing. Quotas require the appointment of
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candidates with particular characteristics. The targets we proposed would be a
publicly expressed intention to recruit a particular number of judges with
certain characteristics who meet the required standard, with an obligation to
report and to explain continued efforts to be made to meet the target should it
not be reached. We stand by this recommendation, without which we believe
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insufficient priority is placed on diverse appointments.

1.18. In addition to these recommendations, and in light of our analysis of the
progress (or lack thereof) that has been made since 2017, in Chapter Four we
make a number of further recommendations to help increase judicial diversity.

Methods and approach

1.19. This Update presents combined analyses of:

a. official statistics and reports relating to judicial diversity since 2017,
specifically: data published by the Judicial Office on the sitting cohort of
judges; data on the selection and appointment of judges published by the

12 As noted in our earlier report, while some members of our Working Party believe the time for
quotas has come, this is currently a minority view. That said, should much more time pass without
meaningful and sustained change in the demographic composition of our judiciary, our 2017 report
recognized that the case for quotas may become overwhelming.
13 This approach was endorsed by the Lammy Review, see: D Lammy, The Lammy Review: An
independent review into the treatment of, and outcomes for, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic
individuals in the Criminal Justice System, (2017). In evidence to the Justice Committee, David
Lammy MP later indicated that he wish he’d proposed quotas.
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