Page 49 - Judicial Diversity Update report

Sitting cohort

2.72. Although there are no official statistics for sitting judges, over the years it has
become well known that most senior judges were privately educated. The
Sutton Trust report from 2016 found that 74% of senior judges attended private
schools. As a comparison, only 7% of the general population in this
116 117
country attended private schools, when including sixth form entrants. The
Sutton Trust also found that 71% of senior judges attended Oxbridge. Whilst
Oxbridge attendance is not a perfect proxy for socio-economic background,
those from a higher socio-economic background constitute a disproportionate
number of Oxbridge graduates. Further, the report found that ‘over half
118
(52%) of senior judges took the same pathway from independent school to
Oxbridge and then into the judiciary’.
119

2.73. In the absence of official statistics about the social backgrounds of sitting
judges, JUSTICE collected data on the social background of senior judges to
the extent that it was feasible. Unfortunately, no such data was available for
Circuit Bench appointees, though we managed to gather data for all appointees
to the High Court over 2017 to 2019 and for all sitting justices at the Court of
Appeal and the Supreme Court. We were able to collect data on the university
attended and the type of secondary school broken down by both fee paying and
state school, and selective (i.e. fee paying or grammar school) or
comprehensive.

school on a full scholarship; and individuals with lower social mobility who attended UK private
schools as a benefit of their parents’ employment (for example, children of service personnel serving
overseas).
116 P. Kirby, Leading People 2016, The educational backgrounds of the UK professional elite, The
Sutton Trust, 2016, p.30 (https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Leading-
People_Feb16-1.pdf).
117 In this report ‘senior judge’ refers to High Court Justices and Lord and Lady Justices of Appeal
118 P. Kirby, Leading People 2016, The educational backgrounds of the UK professional elite, The
Sutton Trust, 2016, available online at https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-
content/uploads/2020/01/Leading-People_Feb16.pdf.
119 The Sutton Trust, ‘Elitist Britain 2019’, June 2019, available online at
https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Elitist-Britain-2019.pdf, p.5
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