Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to help improve the diversity of the judiciary.

The Ministry of Justice, as a member of the Judicial Diversity Forum (JDF), works closely with the judiciary, the Judicial Appointments Commission, the Legal Services Board and the legal professions to take actions to increase judicial diversity.

In December, the Judicial Diversity Forum published its priorities and actions for 2023 https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/JDF-Priorities.pdf which includes MoJ’s priorities: :

1. Leading the Pre-Application Judicial Education programme, which support lawyers from groups under-represented in the judiciary to be prepared for applying for a future judicial role.

2. Publishing comprehensive data in the annual combined Diversity of the Judiciary Statistics

3. Implementing the necessary steps for increasing CILEX lawyers eligibility for a wider range of judicial roles

4. Reviewing the application processes and barriers for non-traditional lawyers seeking judicial office.

The Government has also invested over £1 million to support the recruitment of new and diverse magistrates, the Government’s top priority for the magistracy. A new digitised recruitment process alongside an inclusive marketing campaign was launched in January 2022 as part of this programme of work, targeting underrepresented groups to ensure the magistracy is reflective of the communities it serves. A new Applicant Tracking System (ATS) was also introduced, allowing the MoJ to monitor the diversity of applicants which will help inform future recruitment activity.