SELECT COMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION Judicial Appointments Process Written Evidence Contents Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (ajtc) ...................................................................... 3 Rt Hon Lady Justice Arden DBE ............................................................................................... 5 REASONS WHY JUDICIAL DIVERSITY IS IMPORTANT ........................................................ 6 Anne Arnold, District Judge (Magistrates’ Courts) and Recorder ........................................... 10 Association of Her Majesty’s District Judges ........................................................................... 17 The Association of Women Barristers (AWB) ......................................................................... 22 Association of Women Solicitors (AWS) ................................................................................. 28 Professor Lizzie Barmes, Queen Mary University of London .................................................. 30 Mrs Justice Baron DBE, Family Division Liason Judge for the South East............................. 37 Walter Bealby .......................................................................................................................... 37 Equality and Diversity Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales ......................... 41 Sir John Brigstocke, Judicial Appointments and Conduct Ombudsman ................................. 51 Rt Hon Sir Robert Carnwath CVO, Senior President of Tribunals .......................................... 55 Professor Mary L. Clark, American University Washington College of Law ............................ 60 The Commercial Bar Association (COMBAR) ......................................................................... 65 Richard Cornes and Charles Banner ...................................................................................... 68 Nicholas Davidson QC ............................................................................................................ 73 Equal Justices Initiative (EJI) ................................................................................................... 77 Equality and Diversity Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales ......................... 87 Graham Gee, Lecturer in Law, University of Birmingham ....................................................... 97 Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC, Justice of the Supreme Court of the UK .................. 102 Josephine Hayes, Barrister ................................................................................................... 105 Professor Robert Hazell, Director of the Constitution Unit, School of Public Policy, University College London and Professor Kate Malleson, Professor of Law, Queen Mary University of London ................................................................................................................................... 108 InterLaw Diversity Forum for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (“LGBT”) Networks 112 Sundeep Iyer, Department of Government, Harvard University ............................................ 119 Nick Jones, Traffic Commissioner for the Welsh Traffic Area and Traffic Commissioner for the West Midland Traffic Area ..................................................................................................... 126 Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) ............................................................................ 129 Judicial Executive Board ....................................................................................................... 158 Legal Services Board ............................................................................................................ 164 Legal Services Committee of the Bar Council of England and Wales .................................. 169 Sir Thomas Legg KCB QC .................................................................................................... 184 Lord Mance ............................................................................................................................ 188 Robert Martin, President, Social Entitlement Chamber ......................................................... 193 Professor Aileen McColgan, Karon Monaghan QC and Rabinder Singh QC ....................... 199 Alison McKenna, Principal Judge, First-Tier Tribunal (CHARITY) ........................................ 202 Baroness Neuberger DBE ..................................................................................................... 205 Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission (NIJAC) .............................................. 206 Professor Alan Paterson OBE, Director, Centre for Professional Legal Studies, Strathclyde University Law School ........................................................................................................... 223 Dr Erika Rackley .................................................................................................................... 228 Mark Ryan BA, MA, PGCE, Barrister (non-practising) .......................................................... 234 Sir Konrad Schiemann ........................................................................................................... 235 Karamjit Singh CBE, Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Ombudsman ......................... 237 Society of Asian Lawyers (SAL) ............................................................................................ 240 Senior Immigration Judge Hugo Storey, full-time judge of the Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) ................................................................................................................. 243 Sehba Haroon Storey, Principal Judge Asylum Support ....................................................... 248 Supporting Higher Court Advocates (SAHCA) ...................................................................... 253 The Chancery Bar Association .............................................................................................. 256 The Council of Appeal Tribunal Judges ................................................................................ 261 Law Society of England and Wales ....................................................................................... 262 Professor Cheryl Thomas, Professor of Judicial Studies, Faculty of Laws, University College London (UCL) ........................................................................................................................ 270 United Kingdom Association of Women Judges (UKAWJ) ................................................... 272 Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (ajtc) Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (ajtc) 1. I am writing in response to the recent call for evidence on the judicial appointments process. The AJTC’s interest in appointments issues 2. The AJTC was established by the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007. It has a statutory role to keep the overall administrative justice system under review, and is the successor body to the Council on Tribunals (CoT), established in 1958. In November 2002, the CoT published a Framework of Standards for Tribunals, containing a section relating to judicial appointments (enclosed). In November 2010, the AJTC published its Principles for Administrative Justice, setting out the principles against which it would consider the administrative justice system. Given the wider remit of the AJTC, these are cast in more general terms than the CoT Standards, but the AJTC and its statutory Scottish and Welsh Committees have continued to provide advice to Government from time to time on appointments-related issues, with a particular focus on independence, openness and appropriateness of procedures for the matter involved. Tribunal appointments 3. We wish to emphasise the significance of tribunal appointments. In each of the last three years, the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) has made more recommendations for tribunal appointments than it has for the courts. We understand that in 2010-11 there were 163 appointment recommendations for courts compared to 510 appointment recommendations for tribunals (in respect of both legal and non- legal members). 4. In view of this, we consider it unhelpful that there is only one member of the JAC with a direct ‘tribunals’ remit. We suggest that consideration be given to adjusting the membership of the Commission, better reflecting the balance of work and allowing the JAC to have greater insight into the practical needs of tribunals and their judges. 5. In addition, we would like to note the inconsistency of arrangements for tribunal appointments. Many, but not all, appointments are made by the JAC. Notable exceptions include the Parking Adjudicators and Traffic Commissioners. We do not necessarily suggest that all appointments to tribunals must be made by the JAC, but we think that there should some mechanism for ensuring that all arrangements meet consistent standards. Non-legal members 6. We would also like to raise the issue of non-legal members of tribunals. Non- legal members help to ensure that tribunals remain a specialised, Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council (ajtc) representative and, where possible, relatively informal forum for delivering justice. Non-legal members in some jurisdictions are appointed by the JAC – 195 non-legal member recommendations were made in 2010-11 and 236 in 2009-10. In other jurisdictions, such as Employment Tribunals, a different