Written question asked by Richard Holden (Conservative) on Wednesday, 1 July 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 July 2026. It was answered by Sarah Sackman (Labour) on Friday, 10 July 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Justice.

Judiciary: Public Appointments

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 22 June 2026 to Question 8930 on Judicial Appointments, in how many judicial appointments in each year since the coming into force of the equal merit provision in the Crime and Courts Act 2013 was that provision relied upon to determine which candidate was selected.

Answer

The Equal Merit Provision was introduced in 2014. Where two or more candidates a vacancy are judged by the Judicial Appointments Commission to be of equal merit, the Commission may give preference to the candidates with relevant protected characteristics which are underrepresented within the judiciary as a whole or the level of judiciary for which they are being recommended for appointment.

125 recommendations for appointment have been made by the JAC following the application of the provision.

This is broken down per year as follows:

Year	Total Recommendations for Judicial Appointments made	Recommendations for Judicial Appointment made following application of the Equal Merit Provision
2015-2016	340	14
2016-2017	290	12
2017-2018	749	3
2018-2019	1,031	0
2019-2020	979	16
2020-2021	869	7
2021-2022	1,244	25
2022-2023	1,094	25
2023-2024	867	17
2024-2025	944	6

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 14995
Session: 2026-27
Related items: Judiciary: Public Appointments
Monday, 22 June 2026
Written questions
House of Commons; Judiciary: Public Appointments
Thursday, 10 September 2026
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Judiciary Public appointments
Legislation: Crime and Courts Act 2013
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.parliament.uk

Judiciary: Public Appointments

Secondary information

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