Who’d be a judge?
Work-related stress symptoms may be behind looming recruitment crisis
More than three-quarters of judges in England and Wales have suffered from work-related stress symptoms, the latest judicial attitude survey has revealed. This may be one of the factors leading to what researchers describe as a looming retention and recruitment crisis in the judiciary.
The most prevalent stress symptoms were sleep disturbances (77%), irritability (57%) and headaches (52%). Other symptoms experienced by just under half to a quarter of judges include muscle tension (43%), lack of concentration (37%), burnout (30%), increased sense of isolation (29%), intolerance of others (27%), altered socialising habits (26%) and stomach upsets (25%).
Judges reporting the very highest stress levels were senior coroners (46%), circuit judges (32%), High Court judges in the family division (32%), High Court judges in the King’s Bench division (28%) and senior circuit judges (27%).
The factors to which they commonly attributed their stress levels were lack of personal time because of workload pressures (58%), inability to achieve a reasonable work/life balance (53%), length of screen time (49%), case management pressures (41%), dealing with technology (39%) and, for part-time judges, last-minute changes to their judicial work schedule (43%).
Judges reporting the highest stress levels were more likely to be:
those also reporting that their workload over the past 12 months was too high;
those reporting bullying, harassment or discrimination;
female judges; and
those with disabilities who requested workplace adjustments that have not been implemented satisfactorily.
The survey also indicates what types of support judges sought and which proved least effective.
Over the past decade, the proportion of full-time judges planning to retire early from the judiciary of England and Wales has increased from 23% to 39%. A total of 790 salaried judges are planning to leave the judiciary over the next five years, either through voluntary retirement or on reaching the age of 75. But only 588 part-time judges are currently considering applying for a full-time post.
The factors making full-time judges most likely to leave the judiciary are increases in workload and limits on pay awards. Higher remuneration and better administrative support would make them more likely to stay, the survey says.
Only a bare majority (51%) of High Court judges agree that they are paid a reasonable salary for the work they do. Most full-time judges have seen their earnings fall on appointment. Most part-time judges receive higher fees for non-judicial work
The judicial attitude survey is run by Professor Cheryl Thomas KC (hon), co-director of the UCL Judicial Institute, on behalf of the judiciaries of England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This is the fifth such survey she has carried out over the 10-year period 2014-24. It has an extremely high participation rate, receiving responses of 90% to 95%, and is believed to be the only one of its kind anywhere in the world.
Drawing on a decade of responses, the researchers say they now have a clear picture of judicial working lives in the UK:
Judges in all three UK jurisdictions (England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) are deeply committed to providing an important service to society and they find great satisfaction in the intellectual challenge and public service of the job.
But many judges are now working under extreme pressure with high workloads, in unacceptable building conditions, with little administrative support and growing concerns for their personal safety.
Alongside increasingly difficult working conditions, judges have faced a decade of a continual loss of net earnings.
Judges now feel an increasing loss of respect for what they do by society at large and almost no judges feel valued by the government.
After a decade this has, unsurprisingly, resulted in high levels of judicial stress.
Evidence in the 2024 survey indicates a looming retention and recruitment crisis in the judiciary of England and Wales. It comes at a time when courts are facing record backlogs.
Commenting on the findings, the lady chief justice Baroness Carr of Walton-on-the-Hill and the senior president of tribunals Sir Keith Lindblom said:
The judicial attitude survey provides a valuable insight into the views and concerns of the judiciary at a particular point in time. This has been the fifth such survey and each iteration grows in the scope and depth of information it provides.
We are particularly pleased the survey now covers all salaried, fee-paid judges and non-legal members in England and Wales, as well as the coroners, and are grateful to Professor Cheryl Thomas for this valuable work.
Scotland
A separate judicial attitude survey was carried out in Scotland.
One third (35%) of the full-time judges in Scotland said their overall working conditions were worse in 2024 than they were in 2022 and a quarter (23%) of part-time judicial office holders felt working conditions had worsened.
While a third of salaried judges (34%) in Scotland said their case workload was too high, only 8% of fee-paid office holders said their workload was too high and most (80%) said it was manageable.
Large proportions of Scottish judges reported stress symptoms associated with their judicial work. The most prevalent symptoms were sleep disturbances (67%), irritability (60%) and headaches (42%). Two-thirds of sheriffs principal (67%) and a third of senators in the Outer House (33%) reported extreme levels of stress.
In Scotland over the past two years, judges’ concerns for their personal security in court, out of court and on social media have all increased. But only a minority of the judiciary (32%) rated security at court as excellent or good and only a minority were satisfied with the support they received once they had raised security concerns.
While most salaried judges in Scotland (70%) said the standard of IT equipment they had been given for their personal use was excellent or good, 55% of fee-paid office holders said it was poor or non-existent.
Although a majority of senior judges (senators from both the Outer House and Inner House ) said they were paid a reasonable salary for the work they do, only 17% of sheriffs principal and 40% of sheriffs agreed.
Most full-time judges in Scotland felt there was a good working environment and most fee-paid judges were made to feel welcome. But 41% of summary sheriffs, 38% of senators in the Outer House and 34% of sheriffs said they had felt left out or excluded as judges in the past year, primarily by not being included in communications, not listened to in meetings or undermined in front of colleagues or staff.
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland had its own judicial attitude survey.
A very large proportion of the Northern Ireland judiciary reported stress symptoms associated with judicial duties over the past two years. The most prevalent symptoms were sleep disturbances (70%), headaches (55%) and irritability (43%).
Half the full-time judges in Northern Ireland said that their overall working conditions were worse in 2024 than they were in 2022 while only a quarter of part-time judicial office holders felt working conditions were worse in 2024.
Over the past two years, judges’ concerns for their personal security in court, out of court and on social media have all increased. A majority of judges in Northern Ireland are now concerned for their personal security both in court (54%) and out of court (61%).
Over the decade from 2014 to 2024, most judges in Northern Ireland have said their pay and pension does not adequately reflect the work they have done and will do before retirement. Just under a quarter of judges said they felt they were paid a reasonable salary.
Full-time or part-time
Separate research published by the Ministry of Justice yesterday examined why not enough part-time judges in England and Wales apply to become full-time circuit judges, district judges, employment judges or judges of the First-tier Tribunal.
Dr Sophie Turenne from the University of Cambridge said a major disincentive was the uncertainty of geographical deployment or transfer. Practitioners were not ready to travel excessive distances on appointment or to live away from home and family unlesss they could be reassured that a transfer closer to home would be possible within a few years of appointment.
Turenne found the length of the selection process and the competency frameworks operated as disincentives. “Fee-paid judges also expect their judicial experience to have greater relevance in the selection process and are concerned that specialist knowledge is not sufficiently valued in some cases,” she added.
A remuneration increase might be needed to incentivise salaried post applications but motivating factors other than pay need to be addressed in conjunction to improve recruitment prospects.
Strasbourg
As I reported last year, it has been difficult to find suitable UK candidates for election to the European Court of Human Rights. It’s not clear that the present government’s limited recognition of the work done by UK judges at other European courts has been much of an incentive.
Perhaps for that reason, I understand the Ministry of Justice is planning to introduce secondary legislation that would give a successful candidate who is not a full-time judge a place on the appropriate judicial pension scheme in England and Wales. A statutory instrument dating from the time of Sir Nicolas Bratza’s appointment to the human rights court in 1998 allows full-time judges who head off to Strasbourg to receive the same pension benefits as their monoglot colleagues.
I suppose most of us enjoy the 'trappings' that confirm to us we have some sort of value, even if they may also be regarded as mere icing on the cake. High Court Judges sitting in Birmingham were swept to and from the judicial lodgings and court by limousine escorted by a police motorcyclist outrider. That included a journey each lunchtime, of course. The service was withdrawn perhaps 20 years ago. Circuit Judges had their own dining rooms where proper food was properly served: the courts had their own catering facilities, (also providing food in a public restaurant for court users). Today judicial lunchtimes are often the sandwich and crisp 'meal-deal' variety.
First-class rail travel for High Court Judges going out on circuit was also abandoned and in at least one centre without its own lodgings, the provision of a room in a comfortable hotel (with a desk large enough to work upon) has been replaced by a bed in a Premier Inn (or equivalent) I am told.
These comforts were not essentials but they were a recognition of status and no doubt helped, if only psychologically, to compensate for the loss of immediate income many judges experience on appointment. Judges are still human beings doing difficult jobs on society's behalf. They (and I was never one) respond to the same treatment we all do: it may be a little 'cosseting' but it makes a difference to the day!
Andrew Tucker.
Not surprising really. Even the pay for a HCJ is a huge step down from what senior practitioners can earn in private practice. but I doubt it's the pay alone, it's the daily grind of the never ending conveyor belt of cases, the utter misery (and it really is) of dealing with angry and confused litigants in person in family cases and the broken and dirty buildings (have you ever been to the CFC - the carpet stains are of Jackson Pollock quality). One of the golden rules in life is no public clock in the RCJ is allowed ever to tell the actual time - batteries are expensive apparently! I can see daily how the judges are under pressure from above to keep everything as short and cheap as possible. The only good thing is the court staff and the (in most cases) mutual respect of the lawyers and the judges doing their very best in a disintegrating system. I am sure it's not like that in the Rolls Building. Going there is like comparing Gatwick to an airport in Dubai!