Net for lay tribunal members widens

Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) minister Alan Johnson has hailed the nationwide recruitment campaign to attract a more diverse pool of individuals to sit on employment tribunals as "a success".

Nearly 9,000 people applied to become lay tribunal members, of whom 324 have been selected. Of these more than half (54%) are women, 17% are from ethnic minorities and 18% have experience of working with some form of disability.

This was the first time that an open recruitment method was used. It ran alongside the traditional method of getting nominations from employer and employee bodies. The DTI says the new appointments mean that the composition of lay tribunal members is now: 32% women (up from 29%); 7% from an ethnic minority (up from 5%); and 7% disabled (up from 4%).