People who do not “look like” the archetypal judge have less confidence in the judiciary than those who do, a poll has found.
The survey of more than 5,000 adults across Great Britain, carried out by YouGov for the campaigning organisation the Good Law Project (GLP), found that 28% of people do not trust judges at all/very much while 31% said their level of trust had declined in recent years.
The results appear to validate attempts to increase judicial diversity – 53% of judges in England and Wales are currently white men – as they show that people from less represented demographics are liable to be less trusting.
Jolyon Maugham, the founder of GLP, said: “What the YouGov data shows is that the more you look like the archetypal judge the more confidence you have in judges: people in ‘higher’ social classes have more confidence than those in ‘lower’ social classes, older people have more confidence than younger, white people have more confidence than people of colour, straight people have more confidence than gay, able-bodied people have more confidence than disabled, and the general population has more confidence than trans.”
Trust in judges was lowest among people aged 18-24 (56% trust a lot/a fair amount), those in “lower” social classes (56%) and trans people (46%), 133 of whom participated in the survey, which the GLP intends to carry out annually.
Most judges are over 50, and only 10% are from a minority ethnic background. Data is not published on disability, class or sexual orientation.
In 2019, Lady Hale, then president of the supreme court, bemoaned the lack of diversity, including in terms of social background, and described the judiciary as like “beings from another planet”.
The biggest decline in trust were among older people – although they remained the most trusting age group – people who voted leave in the EU referendum, people with disabilities and trans people.
Maugham said the results “point to a need for scrutiny of why these differential levels of trust in judges exist and how they can be addressed.
“Many of these different levels of confidence are present for other professions, too, as the data shows. It is not our point that they are unique to judges. But what the differences do point to is a need to interrogate why it is true of judges, if the law is to maintain its moral legitimacy.”
There is currently a five-year strategy to boost judicial diversity in England and Wales but critics say more must be done to accelerate the rate of progress.
