The government has finally appointed a new head of the Chancery Division, nearly five months after announcing that the senior judicial post would become vacant.

Former Bar Council chair Sir Geoffrey Vos (pictured) will become chancellor of the High Court from 24 October.

His appointment comes five months after the government announced that his predecessor, Sir Terence Etherton, would become master of the rolls following Lord Dyson’s retirement.

Earlier this month Gazette columnist Joshua Rozenberg said the vacant post was ‘something of a scandal’ given Etherton’s promotion was announced in May.

’That should have allowed ample time for a proper handover to his successor,’ Rozenberg wrote.

Vos’s appointment was made by the Queen on the advice of the prime minister and lord chancellor following the recommendation of an independent selection panel chaired by the lord chief justice.

The government announcement states that in accordance with section 10(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981, the selection exercise was open to all applicants who satisfied the judicial-appointment eligibility condition on a seven-year basis, or are judges of the Supreme Court of the UK, Court of Appeal or High Court.

Vos was called to the bar in 1977 and took silk in 1993.

He was appointed as a justice of the High Court assigned to the chancery division in 2009. Between 2005 and 2009 he was a judge of the Courts of Appeal of Jersey and Guernsey, and a judge of the Court of Appeal of the Cayman Islands between 2008 and 2009.

He was chair of the Chancery Bar Association from 1999 to 2001 and the Bar Council in 2007. Previous posts also include president of the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary.