Page 17 - Judicial Diversity Update report

1.21. In addition to the key diversity indicators of gender, ethnicity, professional
background, socio-economic background, disability and sexual orientation we
also looked at age of appointment, previous judicial roles, number of years in
practice, mode of employment in the current judicial role (fee-paid or salaried)
and for previous roles (fee-paid or salaried), in order to assist our analysis of
the existence of a ‘judicial career path’.

1.22. We have also in this Update sought to highlight the possible links, or
intersections, between diversity characteristics that cannot be viewed in
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isolation from each other. Examining the intersections between
characteristics was not always straightforward – or indeed possible at all – as
this is not currently included in the official publications regarding judicial
diversity. However, to the extent possible, our independent data analyses refer
to intersections between variables and their possible implications for
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diversity.

21 For a similar approach to ‘diversity’ and the need to analyse the success of ethnic minorities and
women in gaining judicial appointment in a wider context of background characteristics, see also:
Thomas, Cheryl. ‘Judicial Diversity and the Appointment of Deputy District Judges.’ (2006).
22 We do not aim to establish which background characteristics have the greatest impact on success rates
of judicial applicants or promotion of sitting judges as this cannot be done in the confines of this report’s
scope and methodology. The statistical analysis in this report is mainly descriptive, and inferential
statistics to examine the relationship between two variables. The importance of having a comprehensive
framework for assessing judicial diversity and diversity in the appointment process was discussed in
previous publications (see, for example, Thomas, note 21 above, p.150) and intersectionality analysis is
key as part of such comprehensive approach. Also see: Blackwell, Michael (2017) Starting out on a
judicial career: gender diversity and the appointment
of Recorders, Circuit Judges and Deputy High Court Judges 1996—2016. Journal of Law and Society,
44 (4). pp. 586-619, pp 33-35. As is noted below, data remains a challenge for assessing diversity trends.
Most notably, there is inconsistent information available on the eligible pool.

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