Lord Chancellor & judicial appointment

The Lord Chancellor should keep out of the process of judicial appointment until names are advanced by the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC), human rights organisation Justice has said.

The Ministry of Justice consultation, Appointments and Diversity, published in November last year, proposed that the Lord Chancellor participate in the appointments process for a number of senior judicial roles. This would overturn the division of responsibilities established by the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

Roger Smith, Justice’s director, said: “There has to be an appropriate and transparent division of responsibilities. The JAC should decide on a list of no more than three names of those who are suitable for appointment with an indication of who they prefer. At that point, the Lord Chancellor should choose.”