Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007

50 Judicial appointments: “judicial-appointment eligibility condition”

(1) Subsection (2) applies for the purposes of any statutory provision that—

(a) relates to an office or other position, and

(b) refers to a person who satisfies the judicial-appointment eligibility condition on an N-year basis (where N is the number stated in the provision).

(2) A person satisfies that condition on an N-year basis if—

(a) the person has a relevant qualification, and

(b) the total length of the person’s qualifying periods is at least N years.

(3) In subsection (2) “qualifying period”, in relation to a person, means a period during which the person—

(a) has a relevant qualification, and

(b) gains experience in law (see section 52).

(4) For the purposes of subsections (2) and (3), a person has a relevant qualification if the person—

(a) is a solicitor or a barrister (but see section 51), or

(b) holds a qualification that under section 51(1) is a relevant qualification in relation to the office, or other position, concerned.

(5) In this section—

• “barrister” means barrister in England and Wales;

• “solicitor” means solicitor of the Senior Courts of England and Wales;

• “statutory provision” means—

  (a)

  a provision of an Act, or

  (b)

  a provision of subordinate legislation (within the meaning given by section 21(1) of the Interpretation Act 1978 (c. 30)).

(6) Schedule 10, which makes amendments—

• for the purpose of substituting references to satisfying the judicial-appointment eligibility condition in place of references to having a qualification mentioned in section 71 of the Courts and Legal Services Act 1990 (c. 41),

• for the purpose of reducing qualifying periods for eligibility for appointment to certain judicial offices from ten and seven years to seven and five years respectively, and

• for connected purposes,

has effect.

(7) At any time before the coming into force of section 59(1) of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 (c. 4) (renaming of Supreme Court), the reference to the Senior Courts in subsection (5) is to be read as a reference to the Supreme Court.