Ensuring integrity in judicial selection

The Judicial Appointments Commission (JAC) is making some changes to the confidentiality agreement that all candidates sign when they apply for a judicial appointment.

Many CILEx members and Fellows will know that the JAC is an independent body that selects candidates for judicial office in courts and tribunals in England and Wales, and for some tribunals with UK-wide jurisdiction.

Preserving the integrity of selection exercise materials is an important part of protecting the fairness of the selection process for judicial roles which is why all candidates sign a confidentiality agreement when they apply.

However, from April 2018, the JAC’s confidentiality agreement will change, and it’s a change all CILEx members who are considering judicial appointment need to be aware of.

What the changes mean

Under the new policy, if the JAC becomes aware of any evidence that a candidate has breached their confidentiality agreement, the candidate may be disqualified from that selection exercise and could be considered for disqualification from future exercises.

The JAC will also automatically refer any suspected breach of the confidentiality agreement to CILEx Regulation (or other relevant professional legal regulator for solicitors and barristers) to consider as a potential breach of professional obligations, or an incident of misconduct.

The JAC will be working with CILEx Regulation and other legal professional regulators to help bring in these changes from 1 April.