Page 69 - Judicial Diversity Update report

Route to the High Court 2017-2019

3.11. We analysed the two High Court appointment rounds for 2017-2018 and
2018-2019. As not all announcements had been made at the time of writing,
this analysis does not cover the 2019-2020 appointments.

3.12. Over 2017-2019, 29 High Court judges were appointed; four were solicitors
and 25 were barristers, all of whom were QCs. On average, High Court
appointees had 30 years in practice at the time of appointment, the youngest
was 46 years old, the eldest 66. On average, it took appointees 3.7 years from
the time of their last judicial appointment to be appointed to the High Court.

3.13. On average, the appointees had held two judicial roles prior to appointment,
most holding a fee-paid position at the time of their appointment to the High
Court (79%) of whom over 90% were barristers. Only four judges were
appointed to the High Court from a salaried position, two of whom were
solicitors.

3.14. The most common route into the High Court was sitting as a Deputy High
Court Judge, with 19 (or 71% of) appointees holding this role at the time of
appointment. This demonstrates the importance of the position of Deputy High
Court judge as a feeder for the High Court, a role which allows candidates to
gain sitting experience in the court to which they are applying. Again, as
outlined in Chapter One, the current cohort of Deputies is lacking in diversity
and recent rounds have done little to change the demographics. We note that of
the 19 Deputies appointed to the High Court only one was a solicitor. It is
critical that efforts be made to increase the diversity of this pool.

3.15. There was some degree of tribunal experience amongst the appointees (24%
had had tribunal experience at some stage) and three applicants were appointed
directly from a tribunal to the High Court, two of them solicitors. However,
these judges were elevated from the Upper Tribunal, which is concerning given
the limited progression from the First Tier Tribunal to the Upper Tribunal. 152

3.16. Of the 19 appointees who were Deputy High Court Judges prior to
appointment, 10 were appointed under s 9(4) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 and

152 See ‘A route through the tribunals’ section below.
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