Simon Hughes (Shadow Secretary of State for Constitutional Affairs & Shadow Attorney General, Constitutional Affairs; North Southwark & Bermondsey, Liberal Democrat)

I want to put it on the record that although there was some controversy on Second Reading and elsewhere, I am very positive about the  proposals in this part of the Bill. It is right that there should be wider eligibility, which this part of the Bill and particularly this clause provide. I welcome that, as I welcome the Government’s intention of widening by gender and ethnicity the pool of people from which the judiciary is drawn. I am grateful to the Minister for giving me the latest information that I asked for this morning.

I want to share one amusing thought with the Committee. There are some helpful tables that set out, for example, the gender balance among the judiciary. I think we all know that in March 2004, there were 11 male Lords of Appeal in Ordinary and one female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary—Lady Justice Hale was the first woman law lord. However, it is amusing to discover that three of them are of unknown ethnicity. It  seems to me that when people reach that level of seniority, they should be asked about their ethnicity or it should be noted. I know they do not have to fill in forms, which is understandable, but it does no harm to know about ethnicity in the higher reaches of the judiciary. As it happens, they are all white, but the day may come soon when they are not all white.