Parliamentary Questions - Written Replies

WOMEN AT COURT: Women make up 46 per cent of lay magistrates but among the top 138 judges only one woman is a Lord Justice of Appeal and six are High Court judges, John Taylor, Parliamentary Secretary to the Lord Chancellor's Department, told Joan Ruddock (Lab, Lewisham, Deptford). There are no female Law Lords or Heads of Division. Women make up 5.7 per cent of circuit judges, 4.7 per cent of recorders, 16 per cent of assistant recorders, 9.2 per cent of district judges, and 12 per cent of stipendiary magistrates.

HEALTH: Regional directors of public health, who have been employed by the National Health Service, will be employed as civil servants once arms of the NHS executive replace regional health authorities, Gerry Malone, Minister for Health, told David Blunkett, (Lab, Sheffield Brightside).

RAF CLOSURES: Twenty RAF stations at home and abroad have closed since the beginning of 1989 and another 14 are set to close in the next five years, Nicholas Soames, Minister of Defence, told Peter Hardy (Lab, Wentworth).