David Lammy chairs first meeting of board set up to improve diversity among judiciary | Judiciary
David Lammy and the most senior judge in England and Wales are drawing up plans to accelerate the participation of ethnic minority and working-class lawyers in the judiciary.
A new judicial and legal diversity panel, chaired by the first black lord chancellor Lammy and female chief justice Sue Carr, has met for the first time to discuss removing barriers to diverse candidates seeking to join the judiciary.
Members of the seven-person-strong panel hope to accelerate the pursuit of attorneys from underrepresented backgrounds and improve mentoring programs for new hires.
The move follows criticism that Lammy’s plans to cut thousands of jury trials would lead to increased racial and class bias by the predominantly white and middle-class judiciary.
The new panel met in central London on Thursday to build on the success of recent recruitment campaigns that increased the proportion of female judges to 44%.
Speaking before the meeting, Lammy told the Guardian: “This new board is a huge step forward as a lady chief justice and I look to continue to drive real progress towards a judiciary that reflects modern Britain, breaking down barriers and supporting talent from all walks of life.”
Lady Carr, the first woman to serve as head of the judiciary, said the body was “a welcome forum where we can work with lawyers to provide opportunities”. The Department of Justice’s 2025 statistics show that the representation of black judges remains at 1% despite recent recruitment campaigns.
Three-quarters of senior judges were students at Oxford or Cambridge, while almost two-thirds attended private school, according to a Sutton Trust report published in September.
As part of its program to improve representation, the board hopes to work with other minority legal professionals, including those from black and working-class backgrounds, to strengthen mentorship and support.
The UK Black Judges Association, which was set up last year to address recruitment failures, said it was unable to send a representative to the inaugural board meeting because it had been invited only three days earlier.
Cordella Bart-Stewart, president of the association, said recruitment targets should be set for the judicial appointments commission, which recommends individuals for judicial office.
“This initiative is welcome,” he said. “But the government is trying to do this without properly consulting our members about the issues in the appointment process.
“The problems are with the judicial appointments commission. Their processes and internal biases need to be analyzed because they continue to exclude people.”
The commission was approached for comment.
Prominent barrister Keir Monteith KC said any plans for change must take into account evidence of institutional racism in the justice system. “This reality will hinder the recruitment of black and ethnic minority judges, resulting in little real change even after some take office,” he said. “It helps explain why previous attempts over the last 10 years have failed to bring any change.”
Fiona Rutherford, chief executive of legal reform charity Justice, welcomed the board but said it remained unclear how this new initiative differed from existing initiatives.
“Diverse candidates are already applying for a large number of judicial positions, but this has not yet translated into appointments. Work needs to be done to ensure that the appointment process is free from bias, supported by meaningful diversity goals,” he said.
In February it was revealed that Lammy was examining whether plans to increase the number of judge-led trials for all but the most serious cases could result in tougher sentences for minority ethnic defendants.
Critics pointed to a 2017 review Lammy wrote into the treatment of people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the criminal justice system.
In the review, Lammy said people from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to receive prison sentences for drug offenses than white defendants, and cited public comments that ethnic minorities “have more confidence in the fairness of juries than the fairness of magistrates’ courts”.
The Guardian was also told ministers were planning to allow the chief magistrate’s remarks on sentencing to be broadcast live for the first time. Lammy and Carr also agreed to establish a joint working group to explore how court coverage could be further expanded.
