Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to increase the number of women members of the judiciary.

The proportion of female court judges has increased by 5 percentage points since 2014, to 29% as at 1 April 2018, and for tribunal judges it has increased by 3 percentage points to 46%, over the same period.

We recognise that more progress is required and the Ministry of Justice has jointly developed and is funding the pre-application judicial education programme (PAJE), which launched on 24 April 2019. This will support and encourage lawyers interested in a judicial career and targets underrepresented groups including women, to help them prepare for a judicial career.

The MoJ continues to work closely with the Lord Chief Justice, Chair of the Judicial Appointments Commission and other members of the Judicial Diversity Forum, including the three legal professions, to implement its multi stranded plan to increase judicial diversity.