One in 10 salaried judges and one in 20 fee-paid office holders say they have experienced bullying by colleagues in the past two years, according to the latest comprehensive official sounding of the judiciary.

The 2022 UK Judicial Attitude Survey, which was quietly published earlier this month, also found that 5% of salaried judges and 4% of fee-paid office holders experienced discrimination, while 4% of salaried judges and 1% of fee-paid office holders experienced harassment.

This is the first time the survey has asked about bullying, harassment and discrimination.

Within the salaried judiciary, bullying was mostly reported by district judges, upper tribunal judges, circuit judges and first-tier tribunal judges, harassment was mostly reported by district judges in the county court and employment judges, and discrimination was mostly reported by upper tribunal and first-tier tribunal judges.

Nearly a third (31%) said they experienced bullying from their own leadership judge, 27% from another judge at their court or tribunal, and 22% from a more senior judge.

Within the fee-paid judiciary, bullying, harassment and discrimination were mostly reported by upper tribunal judges.

Over a quarter (28%) said they had experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination from another judicial office holder at their court or tribunal, 24% from a more senior judicial office holder, and 14% from their own leadership judge.

More than two thirds of all judges who experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the past two years did not report it. Only 9% of salaried judges and 9% of fee-paid office holders who did report bullying, harassment or discrimination said their complaint was resolved to their satisfaction.

The lord chief justice revealed last year that work commissioned on inappropriate behaviour within the judiciary had revealed reports of bullying, harassment and discrimination. This prompted the judiciary to publish a ‘statement of expected behaviour’ in January.

 

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