Work commissioned on inappropriate behaviour within the judiciary revealed examples of bullying, harassment or discrimination, the lord chief justice has revealed.

In his annual report, published yesterday, Lord Burnett said he asked the Judicial Office to commission qualitative work to determine the nature of any inappropriate behaviour among judges in response to a ‘limited number’ of reports.

The work looked at ‘less obvious’ as well as overt behaviour. Judges were also asked about such behaviour in the 2022 Judicial Attitudes Survey, which has yet to be published.

‘All organisations have problems of this nature,’ Burnett said. ‘The judiciary is not immune from them and in seeking proper information we intend to take steps to ameliorate them.’

Burnett explained later in his report that the work sought to identify the nature and extent of behaviour which 'might make people uncomfortable in their work, or excluded, including an exploration of behaviour properly described as bullying, harassment and discrimination'.

He said the work identified many positive aspects of the existing culture that can be built on, starting from the principles in the judicial oath, and examples of inclusive working practices initiated by leadership judges.

‘However, there were also examples of behaviour that amounted to bullying, harassment or discrimination, as well as examples of behaviour that would not be classed as bullying but could nonetheless have had an adverse impact on those who experienced it,' he added.

The judicial executive board has now agreed on actions ‘to foster a more consistently inclusive culture throughout the judiciary, including promoting a shared understanding of behaviour the judiciary can expect of one another and others can expect of them, as well as developing training to support an inclusive environment’.

The lord chief justice's annual report also reveals that a mediation service has been introduced to help informally resolve disputes between judicial office holders. 

 

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