Judges "must demonstrate commitment to public service"

People applying for judicial posts should show their commitment to public service by answering questions about voluntary work, Baroness Neuberger, chair of the Lord Chancellor's advisory panel on judicial diversity, has said.

Launching the panel's final report, she said candidates should be 'probed more deeply' on whether they had done voluntary work or worked for a legal charity.

The panel recommends that the Judicial Appointments Commission rewrites one of its criteria for assessing merit so that an 'ability to understand and deal fairly' is replaced by a much more detailed test, including a requirement for a 'commitment to public service, preferably demonstrated through experience'.

Baroness Neuberger said she hoped the report, which made 53 recommendations, would lead to a noticeably more diverse judiciary by 2020.

'It took Canada 20 years,' she said. 'They've done very well on gender but not on ethnic diversity.'

Justice secretary and Lord Chancellor Jack Straw told the Commons that a judicial diversity task force had been set up, including himself, the Lord Chief Justice, the chairman of the JAC, the senior president of tribunals and the heads of the Bar Council, the Law Society and ILEX.

Baroness Neuberger said a recommendation that an appraisal system should be set up for all judicial posts, a change which was supported particularly by women lawyers, had already been accepted.

'There aren't the resources to create a gold-plated system, so we will probably end up with something more like stainless steel,' she said.

She said the report did not recommend diversity quotas or targets, because women and ethnic minority lawyers wanted to feel they had been appointed on merit.

However, the report said the JAC should make use of the Equality Bill 'positive action' provisions, should they became law.

These provisions would allow diversity to 'tip the balance' in favour of a candidate where two candidates were evenly matched.

Although these powers are only 'permissive' regarding the judiciary, the panel recommended they apply to the judiciary and the JAC.

Baroness Neuberger said the old-fashioned 'tap on the shoulder' which once told people they had got a job as a judge should be replaced by a tap on the shoulder meaning that female or ethnic minority candidates should apply.

She said the tests and role plays used by the JAC to select candidates had become 'a bit of a joke'.

'Solicitors like the test, but not the role play,' she said. 'Barristers like the role play but can't stand the test.'

Baroness Neuberger said that, given the state of the economy, the numbers applying to be judges were huge and that a sifting process was necessary.

She suggested that the test should be done online, and applicants should be able to take it a number of times. She welcomed the role played by the Law Society in training solicitors for the role play and the part played by five of the top City firms that had joined her in a judicial office working group.