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Do you have to be a certain age to be a judge?

No, although you do need to have been qualified as a barrister or solicitor for a set number of years.

However, it is worth pointing out that no legal qualification at all is needed to become a magistrate. There are just under 30,000 magistrates in England and Wales, all of whom are unpaid members of their local community. Anyone between the age of 18 and 65 can apply to become a magistrate. They retire at the age of 70.

Do you have to have been to university to be a judge?

To be appointed to paid judicial office it is currently necessary to have been fully qualified as a barrister or solicitor for a minimum time period (at present, at least seven years since qualifying), depending on the office in question. Often barristers and solicitors will have taken a law degree at university, although those without a law degree can take a 'conversion' to law course so that they may enter the legal profession.

But advocacy experience is not an essential requirement for appointment to judicial office - the Government is also planning to legislate to allow registered patents agents, trade mark attorneys and Fellows of the Institute of Legal Executives with the required number of years' experience to apply for certain appointments.

In the case of the magistracy, whether you have or have not attended university does not matter at all.

Why do most judges appear to be older white men?

The Lord Chief Justice is very keen that the judiciary reflects the society it serves, but there are a number of factors that affect the achievement of that aim. Perhaps one of the biggest factors is that the paid judiciary can only be selected from the pool of legally qualified lawyers whom are eligible to apply. As this pool becomes diverse, it follows that the judiciary will too.

There has been progress on this in recent years, but there is more to do. Some steps already taken include the appointment of two judges who work in a part-time capacity, recognising that both have childcare commitments. There are also various mentoring schemes aimed at raising levels of awareness about the work of judges amongst minority ethnic lawyers.

The magistracy has also worked hard to become more representative of the community it serves. Indeed, some 8.5 per cent of magistrates are now from a minority ethnic background - only slightly less than the proportion of ethnic minorities in the overall population. There is also a roughly even split between the numbers of male and female magistrates appointed.

Who chooses/employs judges?

The Judicial Appointments Commission was launched on 3 April, 2006, under the terms of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005.

The Commission will take over responsibility for making selections for the appointment of judicial office-holders, with some limited exceptions:

• The Lord Chancellor will temporarily retain responsibility for any appointments that might arise to fill any vacancies amongst the Heads of Division and members of the Court of Appeal until 1 October, 2006. This will give the new Commission to implement a suitable process of its own;
• For a limited period the Lord Chancellor will continue to advise The Queen on the appointment of any High Court vacancies. This arrangement will continue until the list from the Commission's first High Court competition becomes available no later than April 2007; and
• For a limited period, the Lord Chancellor will retain responsibility for those competitions started by the before April 2006 and which, by April 2006, will have made significant progress. These competitions should have been completed by July 2006.

Magistrates currently go through a selection process involving application forms and interview. This is done at a local level. Recommendations are then made to the Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs and the Lord Chief Justice. The Judicial Appointments Commission will not assume responsibility for advising on the appointment of magistrates until it is ready to do so.

©2008 Judicial Communications Office