Senior Salaries Review Body confirms major salary review
The government is to consult judges as part of a major review into judicial salaries and will take ‘recruitment’ into consideration, the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) has confirmed.
The SSRB wrote to the Lord Chief Justice and other heads of judiciary this week to say it will consult judges on how their previous earnings compare with their current salaries, as part of a major salaries review announced in December 2016.
Public sector pay awards will average one per cent in each year up to 2019-20. However, the SSRB said it would ‘look fundamentally at the pay structure, taking into account judicial recruitment in the light of the external market, retention and motivation. The changing nature of judicial roles will also be relevant’.
As part of the review, judges appointed to a salaried or fee-paid post since April 2012 will be surveyed in the autumn on their previous roles and salaries ‘to provide the SSRB with information on differentials in salary which individuals might experience on joining the judiciary’. The SSRB will submit its findings to the Lord Chancellor in June 2018.
In February, an official survey, the Judicial Attitude Survey, found low morale among salaried judges, with 75% saying they had suffered a loss in earnings in the past five years. A third of judges said they were considering leaving the judiciary in the next five years, but 83% said a higher salary would change their mind.
In March, Lord Neuberger raised concerns about recruitment before the House of Lords’ constitution committee, calling for the retirement age to be raised from 70 to 75 to stem the flow. The Judicial Appointments Commission told the same committee that vacancies for Crown Court and High Court judges are being left unfulfilled due to a shortage of suitably qualified applicants.
