The judiciary in England and Wales is facing a “looming retention and recruitment crisis” as more judges complain about threats to personal safety and their working conditions deteriorate, a study has found.
Two in five judges said they were considering exiting the profession early within the next five years, an increase from 31 per cent in 2014, according to a comprehensive survey published by the UCL Judicial Institute on Monday.
Concerns about personal safety rose particularly sharply, with 40 per cent of judges worried about their safety in court, an increase from just over a quarter in 2022, when the survey was previously conducted.
The threat of judges quitting is the latest challenge facing the government as it grapples with lengthy court delays. The backlog of cases in the Crown Court, which hears the most serious criminal cases, hit a record 73,000 at the end of September 2024.
Court closures and infrastructure problems, alongside a shortage of judges and lawyers, have added to the pressure.
The proportion of judges who plan to leave early remained broadly the same in 2024 as in the previous survey.
However, Professor Cheryl Thomas KC, who led the study, said the number outstripped the number of fee-paid judges considering applying for a salaried judicial post.
The results pointed to “a looming retention and recruitment crisis in the judiciary in England and Wales . . . at a time when courts are facing record backlogs”, she added.
A majority of salaried judges, about 60 per cent, said their conditions had worsened from two years earlier.
Baroness Sue Carr, England’s most senior judge, said last week that “concerns over judicial safety are at an all-time high”, warning of “a mounting campaign of attacks on judges” ranging from physical assaults to online abuse.
The lady chief justice cited an attack in court on a judge last year by a man who threw a radiator at him, punched him and called him a “little lying weasel”.
Judges raised concerns about levels of stress, which were particularly acute among coroners, 46 per cent of whom reported “extreme stress”, and Circuit judges and High Court family judges, about a third of whom said the same.
Almost 60 per cent of salaried judges said respect for the judiciary in society had declined over the past two years. More than a third said the physical quality of their buildings was poor or unacceptable.
A majority of salaried judges also said their pay did not adequately reflect their work. However, the proportion of judges providing this response about remuneration has fallen since 2014.
A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Judges’ pay was increased by 7 per cent last year, on top of a 6 per cent rise the previous year, and pension reforms have also made the overall remuneration package more generous.
“Recruiting more judges and tribunal members is crucial to our plan to deal with backlogs and we will recruit 1,000 this year alone.”
