England and Wales: Hiring round saw one third of High Court posts remain vacant
Reading time: 1 minute
New figures show that a third of High Court posts remained vacant after a recent hiring round, The Brief reports.
Data from the Judicial Appointments Commission show that between April and December last year there were 25 positions at the High Court, with 17 appointments made.
Lord Kakkar, chair of the commission, said: “For the first time since 2014-15, the overall percentage of outstanding and strong candidates decreased.”
He added that the decline was affected by the increasing number of vacancies the commission requires to fill.
There are currently 95 sitting High Court judges, who are paid a salary of £181,566. But changes to the pension regime have meant meant losses to judges of at least £30,000.
Judges typically come from the bar, where incomes are much higher than the High Court bench.
The UK government lost its case at the Employment Appeal Tribunal in January when more than 200 judges, among them six High Court judges, successfully challenged changes to the pension regime enacted in 2015 – a judgment ministers are appealing.
Share this article:
Subscribe to our newsletter to not miss articles like this one:
SUBSCRIBE
