Summary
283.Part 2 of the Act amends the minimum eligibility requirements for judicial appointments in England and Wales (and for some posts where the office-holders may sit in Scotland or Northern Ireland) with the aim of increasing the diversity of the judiciary. The existing eligibility requirements for judicial office are replaced with the requirement that a person must satisfy the “judicial-appointment eligibility condition”. The sections mean that rather than eligibility for office being based on possession of rights of audience for a specified period, a person who wishes to apply for an office under any of the provisions amended by Schedule 10 to the Act will have to show that he has possessed a relevant legal qualification for the requisite period and that while holding that qualification he has been gaining legal experience. In respect of many of the offices, the number of years for which a person must have held his qualification before he becomes eligible for judicial office is also reduced.
284.Part 2 also enables the Lord Chancellor, following consultation with the Lord Chief Justice and the JAC, to extend by order the list of relevant qualifications for the purpose of the judicial-appointment eligibility condition. This will enable those with relevant qualifications and legal experience to apply for certain offices, which will also be specified in the order.
285.Part 2 of the Act also makes provision for the appointment to fee-paid judicial office of those who have previously held corresponding salaried appointments (section 53) and makes provision (sections 56 and 57) about appointments (in the civil courts in England and Wales) of district judges, deputy district judges and deputy, and temporary, masters and registrars. Section 58 makes provision about appointments of temporary assistants to the Judge Advocate General, section 59 makes provision about appointments to certain Appeals Commissions, section 60 makes provision about appointment as chairman of the Law Commission and section 61 relates to the Northern Ireland Judicial Appointments Commission.
