Diversity of the judiciary: Legal professions, new appointments and current post-holders - 2026 Statistics

Question 1

1. Main Points

Accepted Answer

1.1 Sex


The female population is generally well represented in the legal professions and judiciary.		42% of barristers, 54% of solicitors, 78% of Chartered Legal Executives, and 45% of all judges were female. These maintain their steady upward trends.
There was no disparity of outcomes between female and male candidates in their selection to judicial posts.		Female candidates represented 50% of the eligible pool and 55% of recommendations in legal judicial selection exercises in 2025-26.

1.2 Ethnicity


There has been a gradual increase in the representation of ethnic minorities in the legal professions and judiciary.		Since 2016, the ethnic minority proportion of barristers increased from 14% to 17%, of solicitors from 16% to 20%, of Chartered Legal Executives from 6% to 12%. For all judges the proportion increased from 6% to 13%.
There was no disparity of outcomes between White and ethnic minority candidates in legal judicial selection exercises.		Across all legal exercises in 2025-26, ethnic minority candidates accounted for 16% of the eligible pool and 18% of recommendations.

1.3 Professional background


There was a disparity of outcomes for solicitors in legal judicial selection exercises compared to barristers.		For all legal exercises in 2025-26, solicitors (44%) made up more applicants than barristers (37%) - but constituted a smaller percentage of the recommendations (31% compared to 46%).
Tribunal judges are twice as likely to have a non-barrister background than court judges		Overall, 30% of court judges and 60% of tribunal judges were from non-barrister backgrounds (mostly solicitors).

1.4 Judges sitting in retirement


In comparison to judges, a lower proportion of judges sitting in retirement are female or from an ethnic minority backg5ound, but a higher proportion have a non-barrister background.		A third (33%) of all judges sitting in retirement are female. Ethnic minorities made up about 8%. Non-barristers made up over half (53%) of judges sitting in retirement, compared to 40% for all current judges.

1.5 Non-legal Members of Tribunals


Compared with judges, a higher proportion of non-legal members are female, or from an ethnic minority background.		Of all non-legal tribunal members, over a half (59%) were female and those with an ethnic minority background constituted 18%, compared to 44% and 13% for all judges respectively.

1.6 Magistrates


The proportion of the magistracy who are female is higher than in the judiciary, whilst the proportions from an ethnic minority background are similar.		Over half (57%) of all magistrates were female. Ethnic minorities made up 14%.
The proportion of ethnic minority individuals appointed to the magistracy was higher than the proportion who left.		Over 1,650 appointments were made to become a magistrate in 2025-26, of which 17% were from an ethnic minority background. In the same period, about 1,000 magistrates left, of which 9% were from an ethnic minority background

Question 2

2. Statistician’s Comment

Accepted Answer

Female representation remains positive and in line with the general population across the judicial career path from the legal professions who make up the eligible candidate pool, through the judicial appointments process, to the current judges in post.

The ethnic minority representation of the legal professions is increasing and is in line with the working age (25-74) population. Representation within the judiciary is also increasing, although there were comparatively smaller increases for certain groups such as those from a Black background. The overall judiciary proportion is lower than the 25-74 working age population but slightly higher than the 50-74 population, using data from the 2021 Census.

For both the latest year and over a three-year period, there is no evidence of disparity in the judicial appointments process from eligible pool to recommendation between the combined group of ethnic minorities and White candidates in legal exercises.

New information for this year shows that, of those who declared, eight percent of barristers, three percent of solicitors, and seven percent of judges were LGB+; and that 66% of those judges who had declared, had attended a UK state school.

Amongst magistrates in post a higher proportion are female compared to judges, but a similar proportion are from an ethnic minority background. There was a large increase in the number of applications and new appointments made to the magistracy in 2025/26 compared to the previous year. The proportion of those newly appointed who were from an ethnic minority was nearly double that for those who left the magistracy in the same year.

Question 3

3. Things you need to know

Accepted Answer

This report brings together diversity data on the legal professions, judicial appointments, sitting judges, other post holders and magistrates in England and Wales.

The accompanying User guide contains extensive information about these statistics - on their background, sources and coverage. It also includes a detailed description and explanation of terms used in the analysis of the data from the judicial selection exercises - such as ‘recommendation rate’, ‘relative rate index (RRI)’, ‘practical significance’, ‘statistical significance’ and ‘eligible pool’. We therefore strongly suggest the user guide is read alongside this report, particularly by anyone who is new to these statistics.

In addition to the User Guide, downloadable tables have been published alongside this bulletin which contain more detailed information, and these are referenced as ‘Tables’ throughout this report.

For this edition covering 2025-26, data on religion and sexual orientation has been published for some data providers, where possible, for the first time.

The interactive Microsoft Power BI dashboard published alongside this report has now been expanded to include data on judicial appointments and judges sitting in retirement.

Two annexes have been published alongside this year’s report relating to magistrates recruitment. The first (Annex A) provides analysis of candidate drop-out rates during the magistrate appointment process, by diversity characteristic ^{[footnote 1]}. The second (Annex B) gives notice of a new quarterly report on the number of magistrate appointments, beginning with April-June 2026-27.

To provide general feedback on the tool and related content of this publication, please contact us at judicial.statistics@justice.gov.uk.

Question 4

4. Overview of the legal professions, selection exercises and judiciary

Accepted Answer

4.1 Legal professions

The legal professions form the pool from which the candidates who wish to become judges can apply. Table 1.1 provides information about the sex, ethnicity and age of these professionals by experience and seniority. As at 1 April 2026, there were 18,287 barristers, 179,815 solicitors (including those who are exempt from holding a practising certificate by virtue of section 88 of the Solicitors Act 1974) and 9,053 Chartered Legal Executives^{[footnote 2]}.

The varying size of the professions should be kept in mind when interpreting the figures presented throughout this publication relating to the percentage of those in different professions with various characteristics (typically there will be more solicitors than barristers or Chartered Legal Executives).

4.2 Judicial Appointments: Applications and Selections

Table 2.1 contains a full list of the exercises completed by the JAC between 1 April 2025 and 31 March 2026, and a detailed breakdown of the number of applications and appointments for each type of exercise. During 2025-26 the Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) completed 34 judicial selection exercises (excluding senior judicial appointments), 26 for legal posts and 8 non-legal tribunal exercises. There were a total of 5,802 applications^{[footnote 3]}, resulting in 803 recommendations for immediate appointment^{[footnote 4]}.

Where two or more applicants are assessed as being of equal merit, the JAC can select an applicant for the purpose of increasing judicial diversity using the Equal Merit Provision (EMP) introduced by the Crime and Courts Act 2013^{[footnote 5]}. EMP can be applied at both the shortlisting and final decision-making stages. For exercises reporting in the 2025-26 period, as a result of applying EMP, 54 candidates were advanced to the next stage of the process at the shortlisting stage, and 14 candidates were recommended at the final decision-making stage^{[footnote 6]}.

Levels of experience among applicants

Judicial selection exercises have a minimum statutory level of post qualification experience (PQE). However, the actual levels of applicants’ PQE are often greater than these minimum requirements. For 2025-26, of all applicants for court and tribunal positions requiring at least 5 years’ post-qualification experience, applicants had around 19 years’ experience on average. Of those who applied for positions requiring at least 7 years’ experience, applicants had around 21 years’ experience on average. More specifically:

Court positions requiring 5 years’ PQE: the average PQE of applicants was around 18 years
Court positions requiring 7 years’ PQE: the average PQE of applicants was 21 years
Tribunal positions requiring 5 years’ PQE: the average PQE of applicants was around 19 years
Tribunal positions requiring 7 years’ PQE: the average PQE of applicants was 21 years

Therefore, where information on the eligible pool for the legal professions is presented in the following chapters, these actual averages are used to allow a more meaningful comparison.

Comparison with previous years

This publication presents data for selection exercises which concluded during 2025-26 and does not draw overall comparisons with previous years. Historical comparisons can be affected by the number and type of exercises run in any given year, which can vary according to recruitment needs, and by when exercises are formally closed (before or after the report’s cut-off date of 1 April each year). However, in certain exercises where data is consistently available across the years, summary statistics on recommendations for appointment have been presented in the accompanying interactive dashboard.

4.3 Judicial office holders

Table 3.1 shows that as at 1 April 2026, by primary appointment, there were 3,497 court judges and 1,840 tribunal judges, with an additional 3,139 non-legal members of tribunals.

Court and tribunal judge numbers fluctuate over time and there is little pattern in changes from one year to the next. Despite these fluctuations, compared to 2012 (the earliest year with data available on both courts and tribunals), the number of court judges (3,575 in 2012) and tribunal judges (2,060 in 2012) both show a slight decrease in 2026.

Turnover in the judiciary tends to be relatively low, with 263 judges beginning their first appointment in 2025-26 - 124 (47%) in courts and 139 (53%) in tribunals, with 234 leaving in the same period - 148 (63%) court and 86 (37%) tribunal judges.

As at 1 April 2026 there were 249 judges sitting in retirement in England and Wales.

4.4 Magistrates

There were 15,259 magistrates in post across England and Wales as at 1 April 2026, up 4% from the previous year (14,636).

Of the 8,899 applications to join the magistracy which concluded in 2025-26, 1,657 resulted in an appointment.

Question 5

5. Sex

Accepted Answer

5.1 Legal Professions

Overall the female population is generally well represented in the legal professions, with each of the professions showing a gradual increase in female representation over the past decade.

Of the three professions, female barristers and solicitors are less likely to be at a senior level (having 15 or more years PQE) than their male colleagues, but male and female Chartered Legal Executives have a similar likelihood to be at a senior level.

Although the female population is generally well represented in the legal professions as a whole, as at 1 April 2026 the female proportion varied between the legal professions - from 42% of barristers, 54% of solicitors, to 78% of Chartered Legal Executives.

Table 1.2 shows that the female proportion in each of the three legal profession groups has gradually increased since 2016, with barristers increasing by six percentage points, solicitors increasing by five percentage points, and Chartered Legal Executives increasing by four percentage points over the last decade.

Post Qualification Experience and seniority^{[footnote 7]}

There is no ideal measure of ‘seniority’ in the professions. Although PQE represents a measure of experience rather than indicating inherent seniority, as introduced in last year’s report, having 15 or more years PQE has been used as a proxy measure of being at a senior level in the legal professions. As barristers appointed to the senior judiciary are often Kings Counsel (KC) this is also still used as a proxy measure for seniority in this report.

Table 1.1 shows that as at 1 April 2026:

Nearly two-thirds (63%) of male barristers had 15+ years’ experience compared to half (49%) of their female colleagues; and also, they were more than twice as likely to be a King’s Counsel (16% compared to 7% respectively).
Over two thirds (70%) of male solicitors had 15+ PQE compared to over half (58%) for female solicitors^{[footnote 8]}.
For Chartered Legal Executives the proportion of those with 15+ years’ experience was more similar for male and female members, at 40% and 38% respectively.

Figure 1: Proportion of female legal professionals by PQE band, April 2026^{[footnote 9]} Across all legal professions, the proportion of female professionals is notably lower for those having 20+ years’ experience.

5.2 Judicial Appointments: Applications and Selections

Overall, there is no evidence of a disparity of outcomes in legal judicial selection in 2025-26 for female candidates relative to male candidates.

Overall View

Table 2.2 shows that across all legal JAC exercises in 2025-26, female candidates^{[footnote 10]} accounted for 50% of the average eligible pool, 51% of the applications (2,600), 51% of those shortlisted (729) and 55% of the recommendations for appointment (316)^{[footnote 11]}.

These percentages suggest there was no disparity of outcomes between male and female candidates in these exercises. This is borne out by the estimated^{[footnote 12]} RRI for the eligible pool to recommendation of 1.18, which shows that overall the likelihood of success is about 18% higher for female candidates from the eligible pool compared to male candidates. This difference is statistically but not practically significant^{[footnote 13]}. Similarly there was no evidence of a disparity of outcomes between male and female applicants in these exercises from application to recommendation (RRI of 1.14, which was not statistically significant).^{[footnote 14]}

This lack of a practically significant difference between male and female candidates is also shown by their similar progression rates in Figure 2.

Figure 2: The proportion of each sex progressing through the exercise stages (all legal exercises completed in 2025-26).

Exercise-specific Analysis

In 2025-26, of the eight legal exercises where an RRI could be calculated^{[footnote 15]}, by sex, two exercises (Fee-paid Judge of the First-tier Tribunal, and Judge of the First-tier Tribunal) showed a disparity in outcomes in favour of female candidates that were both statistically and practically significant (Figure 3). This means that there is evidence of a disparity in the success rates between male and female candidates from eligible pool to recommendation for those two exercises.

Table 2.2 shows that when looking at the RRI values from application to recommendation for all eight exercises, none showed a disparity in outcomes by sex that was both statistically and practically significant, indicating no evidence of a disparity between male and female candidates from application to recommendation.

Figure 3: RRI for female compared to male candidates, from eligible pool to recommendation (all legal exercises completed in 2025-26).

For Figure 3 above, note that the tolerance zone is shaded grey (0.8 to 1.25); results falling within this zone are considered to represent a disparity of outcomes which is not large enough to be considered practically important. Where the confidence interval (represented by the arms extending from each dot) overlaps the parity line (1 on the x-axis), results are deemed as not statistically significant^{[footnote 13]}.

Representation percentages (Figure 4) help to show the progress of female candidates at different stages of the selection process. In comparison to the eligible pool, female representation was higher at the recommendation for appointment stage for four of the ten large legal exercises.

Figure 4: The female proportion of the candidate pool at different stages of the appointments process, split by eligible pool type (5 years’ PQE, 7 years’ PQE, and Previous Judicial Experience (PJE)) and exercise, for large legal exercises completed in 2025-26.

5.3 Judicial Office Holders

Female representation among judges in post has been increasing steadily over recent years, for both courts and tribunals judges.

Judges in post

Table 3.4 shows that as at 1 April 2026, female representation among all court judges (40%) was 12 percentage points higher than in 2016, and that for all tribunal judges (at 54%) it was 10 percentage points^{[footnote 16]} higher than in 2016 (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Proportion of female court and tribunal judges as at 1 April, from 2016.

For context, just over half of the general population aged 25-74 and just under half of the economically active population of England and Wales are female^{[footnote 17]}. As judicial roles require substantial legal experience, a direct comparison with the general population does not provide as much insight on the progression of female representation in the judiciary as considering the makeup of the legal professions (as presented at the beginning of this chapter).

New entrants, promotions and leavers

Table 3.1 shows that:

Of the new entrants to the judiciary – those not previously holding a judicial appointment – during 2025-26, 55% were female (51% in courts and 58% in tribunals).

Of those members of the judiciary who were promoted during 2025-26, 46% were female, with 40% in the courts and 54% in tribunals.

Of those who left the judiciary during 2025-26, 38% were female (31% in courts and 51% in tribunals - Figure 6).

Figure 6: Representation of female court and tribunal judges leaving and joining the judiciary, 1 April 2025 – 31 March 2026.

Patterns by type of appointment

Female representation across the judiciary varies by appointment type and seniority (Figure 7).

As at 1 April 2026, in the courts, female judges held 30% of the more senior posts (High Court and above). The highest level of female representation was among the Deputy District Judges (County Court) at 49%.

Table 3.1 also shows that, in tribunals, female judges accounted for over half (62%) of the most senior roles (Presidents)^{[footnote 18]}.

Figure 7: Female representation of court and tribunal judges by appointment^{[footnote 19]}, 1 April 2026.

Patterns by region

The proportion of female judges across the court judiciary also varies by region, from 32% in Wales, to 43% in the Midlands (with England and Wales at 40%). Variations may reflect the nature of the appointments in the different regions, as well as the underlying regional make-up of both the general population and the eligible pool. Further information is available in Table 3.2.

Question 6

6. Ethnicity

Accepted Answer

6.1 Legal Professions

There has been a gradual increase in the representation of ethnic minorities in all three legal professions over the last decade.

Representation of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds is lower at the senior level for each of the legal professions.

Overall Picture in Each Profession

Since 2016 there has been a gradual increase in the representation of ethnic minorities amongst the three legal professions. For barristers and solicitors, the ethnic minority proportion increased four percentage points to 17% and 20% respectively, and for Chartered Legal Executives it increased six percentage points to 12%^{[footnote 16]}.

At 1st April 2026, for all three professions the proportion of individuals from an ethnic minority background was broadly in line with those of the 25-74 working population in England and Wales from the 2021 Census, and slightly higher than the older 50-74 working population.^{[footnote 20]}

Looking at the groups making up the ethnic minority population, the main variation was in the representation of Asian ethnicity among solicitors (13%) being higher than the 25-74 working population (9%) and the older 50-74 working population (6%). Representation of Black individuals was similar for all three professions (3% to 4%), and was comparable to the 25-74 (4%) and 50-74 (3%) working age populations.

Within the Asian group, the representation of Bangladeshi individuals was the same for each of the three professions, but for all other sub-groups (Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, and Other) representation was higher for solicitors compared to barristers and Chartered Legal Executives. The proportion of Black Caribbean individuals was higher than Black African individuals amongst Chartered Legal Executives, but the other way round for barristers and solicitors.

Post Qualification Experience and seniority^{[footnote 23]}

As mentioned previously, although PQE is a measure of experience rather than seniority, a PQE of 15 years or more is being used as a proxy measure of seniority for the purpose of this report.

In practice, most applicants for judicial roles have more than the minimum experience. For court and tribunal posts requiring at least 5 years’ experience, applicants have on average around 19 years’ experience, and for court and tribunal posts requiring 7 or more years of experience, applicants have on average around 21 years’ experience^{[footnote 21]}. Table 1.1 shows that as at 1 April 2026:

Amongst barristers from an ethnic minority background 22% were newly qualified (0-4 years PQE) and 48% were at a senior (15+ years PQE) level, compared to 15% and 57% respectively for White barristers. Of ethnic minority barristers 8% were King’s Counsel, compared to 13% of White barristers.
Of those solicitors from an ethnic minority background 57% had 15 years or more PQE compared to 74% of White solicitors^{[footnote 8]}.
Amongst Chartered Legal Executives from an ethnic minority background, 51% were newly qualified and 18% were at a senior level, compared to 27% and 41% respectively for White Chartered Legal Executives.

Figure 8: The proportion of each PQE band by ethnic minority group and legal profession group, April 2026^{[footnote 22]}

Figure 9: The ethnic minority proportion of each PQE band by legal profession group, April 2026^{[footnote 22]}

6.2 Judicial Appointments: Applications and Selections

Single-year Analysis: 2025-26

Ethnic minority candidates were recommended for legal exercises in line with their representation in the eligible pool, suggesting no disparity of outcomes in judicial appointments relative to White candidates when comparing recommendation rates from the eligible pool.

However, ethnic minority candidates made up a much higher percentage of applications than their representation in the eligible pool, and their representation decreased between each exercise stage in legal exercises, from application to shortlisting to recommendation for appointment.

For selection exercises that closed in the 2025-26 financial year, candidate numbers at the application, shortlisting and recommendation for appointment stages were not high enough to produce and publish statistics for a more granular ethnic minority group breakdown at the exercise level as the numbers would be too low to draw robust inferences and there would be a risk of individuals being identified from their personal data. Therefore, for individual exercises in this most recent year of data, we consider candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds together as one group and compare their progression outcomes to White candidates.

Later in this section we have grouped together exercises from the latest 3-year period (2023-24 to 2025-26) to generate a sufficient sample of candidates from which we can look at ethnic minority backgrounds on a more granular level in exercises for particular roles.