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Woman to head judiciary for the first time
Court of Appeal judge Lady Justice Macur will be the first female Senior Presiding Judge (SPJ) for England and Wales.
Felicity Nelson
She will assume the role in January 2018, after acting as deputy SPJ for two years, starting in January 2016. No woman has held the role since it was created in 1983.
Court of Appeal judge Lord Justice Fulford is the new deputy SPJ and will take on the top job next year.
The SPJ involves overseeing the work of the presiding judges in England and Wales and sitting on the board of the HM Courts and Tribunal Service.
The judiciary in England and Wales has a record of appointing a much higher proportion of males than females to the bench.
As of October last year, eight out of 38, or 21 per cent of judges in the Court of Appeal were women, while 21 out of a total 108, or 19.4 per cent of judges in the High Court were women.
