Judges value their position; Government doesn't: survey
Scottish judges feel a strong personal attachment to their position and that they provide an important service to society, but do not feel valued by the UK Government. However the judges most likely to be considering early retirement are appeal judges in the Court of Session, for a variety of reasons.
These are among the main findings for Scotland of the 2022 UK Judicial Attitude Survey, the only known continuous survey of the working lives of judges anywhere in the world. It is conducted for the leaders of the judiciary in the three UK jurisdictions by the UCL Judicial Institute. Earlier surveys took place in 2014, 2016 and 2020; for the first time the 2022 survey was extended to fee paid as well as salaried judges. The response rate was 83% for salaried judges and 41% for fee paid.
On the findings in more detail:
- Almost all judges in Scotland said they feel a strong personal attachment to being a member of the judiciary and felt they provide an important service to society, but salaried judges felt this more strongly.
- 55% of salaried and 35% of fee-paid judges felt that members of the judiciary were respected by society less in 2022 than in 2020; only 17% of both felt valued by the UK Government.
- 59% of salaried and 38% of fee paid judges said that working conditions were worse in 2022 than in 2020.
- Almost every judge feels respected by their judicial colleagues at the court where they work, and a majority feel respected by their immediate leadership judge and senior leadership. However around 11% of salaried and 6% of fee paid judges claim to have experienced bullying, harassment or discrimination in the last two years, whether from superiors or others. Most did not report this.
- Salaried judges are divided over whether they feel they are paid a reasonable salary for the work they do; almost three-quarters said they had a loss of net earnings over the last two years, and 40% had earned more than their judicial salary prior to their appointment. A 58% majority of fee-paid judicial officeholders feel they are paid a reasonable rate for a day’s work.
- Just over half of salaried judges (54%) did not feel that the increase in remote hearings had been beneficial to their work, and a majority (53%) said they were finding the switch to working on screens challenging. For fee paid judges, 46% felt remote hearings had been beneficial to their work, and 61% did not find the switch to working on screens challenging.
- The opportunities that are most important for salaried judges are to be able to use their legal knowledge and experience across a range of specialisms (87%) and to gain new skills and broaden their legal knowledge and range of work (83%).
- The most important opportunity for fee-paid office holders was to expand their knowledge of a specialist area of work (83%).
- The overwhelming majority of fee-paid judicial office holders said they would encourage suitable people to apply to join the fee-paid judiciary.
- Senators of the Inner House had the largest proportion (71%) of judges saying they were considering leaving the judiciary early in the next five years. Factors included a reduction in pension benefits (70%), limits on pay awards (68%), stressful working conditions (59%), increase in workload (59%) and further demands for out of hours working (55%).
- A majority of salaried judges said they receive good support from and are treated fairly by their immediate leadership judge, feel their opinions are taken into account when decisions affect them, that cases are allocated fairly, and that diversity and inclusion are promoted at their court.