22 July 2020
The Lord Chancellor has laid before Parliament our annual report and accounts 2019–20. The report sets out performance for 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020.
The number of judicial appointments made this year was 979, continuing the record volume of appointments seen last year. In these last two years we have seen the highest numbers of appointments since the organisation was established.
Lord Ajay Kakkar, Chairman of the JAC said:
“The Judicial Appointments Commission has had a busy year, both before and during the outbreak of COVID-19. We continue to meet the year-on-year increase in demand for appointments, while remaining clear that only candidates who reach the required standard can be recommended for judicial office, in line with our statutory duty to select solely on merit.
“We are grateful to our partners for their ongoing support and in particular for encouraging a wider, more diverse range of people to apply for judicial roles, and for helping us to deliver best practice processes.”
You can read the full report here.
Highlights of the report include:
Key facts:
- the JAC spent £7m (compared to £6.68m in 2018-19)
- we were asked to fill a much larger number of exercises than in past years. We completed 35 exercises with 8,148 applications (a 66% increase on last year) and made 979 recommendations
- these included the selection of 17 High Court Judges for deployment across the Chancery, Family and Queen’s Bench Divisions
- we were also involved in various senior appointments in the judiciary, including the selection of five Lord and Lady Justices for the Court of Appeal