Page 54 - Judicial Diversity Update report

Oxford or Cambridge. This is precisely the same percentage of Oxbridge
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judges in the judiciary as noted in JUSTICE’s report in 1972.

2.79. While not captured in the table above, the appointments to the Court of Appeal
announced in the summer of the 2019 reinforce this pattern, with at least four
of the five appointees attending Oxbridge and two of the five judges attended
124
the same independent boys’ school.

2.80. Of the three new Supreme Court Justices announced in 2019, two attended
independent boys’ schools, the other a grammar school. All studied at
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Oxbridge and at Harvard Law School.
Notes on the pool

2.81. Even compared to other professions, the law is dominated by privately
126
educated people. While the Bar has a particularly low response rate to
questions about social mobility, 127 of those who responded a disproportionate
number (33%) had attended an independent secondary school in the UK. This
was in line with the figure for UK-resident students on the Bar Professional
Training Course (32%). Regarding university attendance, when excluding non-
responses, 44% of barristers reported being the first in their family to attend
university.

123 JUSTICE, The Judiciary: The Report of a Justice Sub-Committee, (1972), para. 44, available online
at https://justice.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/TheJudiciary.pdf
124 ‘Biographies of the five newly appointed Court of Appeal Judges 2019’, Courts and Tribunals
Judiciary, available online at
https://www.judiciary.uk/publications/biographies-of-the-five-newly-appointed-court-of-appeal-
judges-2019/
125 ‘Appointments to the Supreme Court: 24 July 2019,’ GOV.UK, available online at
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/appointments-to-the-supreme-court-24-july-2019
126 P. Kirby, Leading People 2016, The educational backgrounds of the UK professional elite, The
Sutton Trust, 2016, p.4, available online at https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/02/Leading-People_Feb16.pdf
127 Only 46% response rate to the BSB; Bar Standards Board, Diversity at the Bar 2018, February
2019, p.19, available online at https://www.barstandardsboard.org.uk/uploads/assets/1fda3d4b-c7e3-
4aa8-a063024155c7341d/diversityatthebar2018.pdf
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