Concerns centre on consultation for bench appointments

The judicial appointments system lacks transparency, with the consultation process a key area of concern, the Commissioner for Judicial Appointments said this week in a speech that also highlighted structural problems that inhibited solicitors from applying for the bench.

Sir Colin Campbell told an audience this week at the Birmingham University Law School that the role of consultation, and particularly automatic consultation, had 'quickly emerged as a key area of concern for those from which we have heard'.

Sir Colin also said the commission had been told that: 'The organisation of the solicitors' branch of the profession deters solicitors from applying for judicial office'.

But he did not expand that theme, saying only that it was an area outside the commission's remit and a matter for the profession to resolve.

Victoria MacCallum