Majority of UK judges do not feel respected by media

The results come from a survey by the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary (ENCJ). The organisation also measured judiciaries against a number of indicators in its report, Independence, Accountability and Quality of the Judiciary. The report gives the average score per indicator over all participating members and observers of the ENCJ.

UK judges received mixed ratings and, owing to an oversight which could not be corrected in time for the survey to be changed, it did not distinguish between England/Wales and Scotland.

The UK, like many jurisdictions, measured poorly on “court management”, with a score of 43 per cent. The report states: “Court management is still often in the hands – directly or indirectly - of ministries of Justice. It has proven to be difficult to change arrangements in both instances.”

It also scored poorly on “external activities” of the judiciary, with 30 per cent. However, it received 100 per cent scores for “disciplinary measures”, “trust by society”, “press relations”, “external review”, “judicial ethics” and “withdrawal and recusal”.

The report was produced with the financial support of the Justice Programme of the European Union but its contents are those of ENCJ alone and not of the European Commission.