Women's Justice Leadership Panel: report

4. Women's Justice Leadership Panel

4.1 Membership

Panel members were appointed in December 2021. The first meeting of the group was held on 26 January 2022 and the Panel continued to meet regularly until the final meeting in March 2023. The Panel comprised of senior women, each with their own experience of working in roles across the justice system. The Panel members were appointed because of their own personal experience and not to represent the organisation with which they are currently affiliated.

Panel members:

• Ruth Charteris KC
• Jacqueline Clinton
• Hilary Sloan
• Rose McConnachie
• Jen Ang
• Harriet Wistrich
• Professor Vanessa Munro
• Mariam Ahmed

The views expressed within this report are those of individual Panel members and are not to be assumed as unanimously agreed. Also, they may not necessarily represent the views of the organisations to which Panel members are affiliated. Those organisations have not been invited to endorse the conclusions of the Panel. Rather, the Panel were selected, as senior women working within the justice system, to draw on their own first-hand experiences and understandings. The aim of this was to support impartiality and encourage open and frank discussion.

To support the Panel and ensure that lived experience was at the heart of the Panel's considerations, a Reference Group was set up. The purpose of the Reference Group was to contribute towards the outcomes of the Panel, providing direct lived experience, expertise, and knowledge from women who had been in contact with the justice system to support the Panel's considerations.

4.2 Remit

The remit of the Panel was:

• to demonstrate that the experience of women in the justice system is different to men, and
• to promote consistent understanding of gendered issues within the justice system

In addressing these issues, it is hoped that the Panel's work will support the operationalisation of a gender informed justice system which will lead to better outcomes for women.

The work included analysing regular sets of published data to see if there are lessons to be learned and initiatives to be taken forward. The Panel reviewed written evidence and oral evidence presented at Panel meetings.

The Panel was invited to provide challenge and opinion which may help to:

• support the need for system change.
• provide a consistent narrative and promote understanding of gender competency and cultural change.
• identify areas for improvement, prioritisation and levers that can unlock change.