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i was a solicitor Recorder. The MOJ wanted to retire me at 65. I brought a successful age discrimination case in the course of which the MOJ's objective justification claim was examined in some detail. In the run up to the decision on the age at which Recorders should retire the civils servants advised the then Lord Chancellor not to discriminate. He chose to bypass the advice and relied on objective justification. The ET held that the obstacle to greater diversity was not the retirement age. Rather, it was the MOJ's poor management of the Recorder pool. The MOJ did not appeal. If Lord Thomas is unhappy with the current position it seem the MOJ have not learned to make better use of the Fees Paid Judges to promote diversity.
Diversity is doubtless an objective, but it must be just one of a number others such as the efficient management of the courts where they rely heavily on the flexibility provided by a pool of experienced part time judges.