Judiciary: Public Appointments
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2026 to Question 8930 on Judicial Appointments, in how many judicial appointments in each year since the coming into force of the equal merit provision in the Crime and Courts Act 2013 was that provision relied upon to determine which candidate was selected.
Answered by Sarah Sackman
The Equal Merit Provision was introduced in 2014. Where two or more candidates a vacancy are judged by the Judicial Appointments Commission to be of equal merit, the Commission may give preference to the candidates with relevant protected characteristics which are underrepresented within the judiciary as a whole or the level of judiciary for which they are being recommended for appointment.
125 recommendations for appointment have been made by the JAC following the application of the provision.
This is broken down per year as follows:
Year | Total Recommendations for Judicial Appointments made | Recommendations for Judicial Appointment made following application of the Equal Merit Provision |
2015-2016 | 340 | 14 |
2016-2017 | 290 | 12 |
2017-2018 | 749 | 3 |
2018-2019 | 1,031 | 0 |
2019-2020 | 979 | 16 |
2020-2021 | 869 | 7 |
2021-2022 | 1,244 | 25 |
2022-2023 | 1,094 | 25 |
2023-2024 | 867 | 17 |
2024-2025 | 944 | 6 |
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