Memorandum by Fawcett Society
I have pleasure in enclosing as evidence the
"Interim Report on Women Working in the Criminal Justice
System" and a copy of "Women and the Criminal Justice
System" which is the final report of a year long Commission
into women's experience of the criminal justice system.
In summary, we found that:
— Women lack representation throughout
the criminal justice system, but under-representation is particularly
acute at senior levels of the judiciary (please see illustration
on p 27 of "Women and the Criminal Justice System");
— There is limited evidence of any
trickle up effect from the lower ranks of the profession;
— The current selection process for
appointing judges is flawed and, contrary to perceptions from
within the judiciary, does not currently operate on a meritocratic
basis;
— According to the Discrimination Law
Association, the current appointments process may be unlawful
since current appointments under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
and Race Relations Act 1976 because of the narrow "pool"
of candidates used in recruiting to the senior judiciary;
— Increasing the representativeness
of the judiciary is an essential component of increasing public
confidence in and credibility of the criminal justice system (please
see attached letter to the Constitutional Affairs Select Committee);
The Commission made the following recommendations:
— That any Judicial Appointments Commission
should be required to take diversity into account to endure that
the pool of candidates is drawn more broadly than at present;
— The Law Society and Bar Council should
address barriers to women's progress across the legal profession
including pay, flexible working and provision of maternity leave;
— The Sex Discrimination Act be amended
so that public bodies have a positive duty, in carrying out all
their functions, to have regard to the need to eliminate unlawful
sex discrimination and to promote equality of opportunity between
the sexes.
20 April 2004
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