His Majesty The King has been pleased to approve the appointment
of Dame Sue Carr as the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
from 1 October 2023. This appointment follows the retirement of
The Rt Hon. the of Maldon on 30 September
2023.
Dame Sue Carr was called to the Bar in 1987. As a barrister she
specialised in general commercial law and took silk in 2003. She
became Chair of the Professional Negligence Bar Association in
2007, Chair of the Bar Standards Board Conduct Committee in 2008,
and was appointed as the Complaints Commissioner to the
International Criminal Court in the Hague in 2011.
Her judicial career began in 2009 in crime, when she became a
Recorder. She was appointed to the High Court, Queen’s Bench
Division in 2013, and became a nominated Judge of the Commercial
Court and the Technology and Construction Court in 2014. In the
same year she became a member of the Investigatory Powers
Tribunal until 2016. She became a Presider of the Midland Circuit
in 2016 until 2020, when she was appointed as a Lady Justice of
Appeal. In the same year she was also appointed as the senior
Judicial Commissioner and Vice Chair of the Judicial Appointments
Commission, a position she held until January 2023.
Dame Sue Carr was educated at Wycombe Abbey School and read law
at Trinity College Cambridge.
Background
The appointment of the Lord Chief Justice is made by His Majesty
The King on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Lord
Chancellor following the recommendation of an independent
selection panel chaired by Helen Pitcher OBE, Chair of the
Judicial Appointments Commission . The other members were Lord
Lloyd-Jones of the Supreme Court, Sue Hoyle OBE and Sarah
Lee (lay and professional members of the Judicial Appointments
Commission), and Lord Justice Edis (Senior Presiding Judge).
This selection exercise was run under the relevant sections of
the Constitutional Reform Act 2005 as amended by the Crime and
Courts Act 2013. In accordance with section 70 of the
Constitutional Reform Act 2005, as amended by the Crime and
Courts Act 2013, the panel determined the selection process to be
followed and consulted the Lord Chancellor and the First Minister
of Wales on the process followed.
In accordance with s.10(3) of the Senior Courts Act 1981 c.54,
the selection exercise was open to all applicants who satisfied
the judicial-appointment eligibility condition on a 7-year basis,
or were judges of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, or High
Court.
Given the challenges of reducing the outstanding caseloads across
jurisdictions and the drive for modernisation across the Courts
and Tribunals, candidates were expected to be able to serve for
at least 4 years.
