A leading expert in Scots law has attacked the board responsible for recruiting Scotland's judiciary for its hypocrisy in their treatment of female candidates.

A leading expert in Scots law has attacked the board responsible for recruiting Scotland's judiciary for its hypocrisy in their treatment of female candidates.

Alistair Bonnington, solicitor-advocate and former honorary professor of law at Glasgow University, said the Judicial Appointments Board (Jab) was treating female applicants unfairly and that lay members, with no legal background, are failing to spot the qualities required for top jobs in the judiciary.

He said a public statement from Jab chairman Sir Neil MacIntosh, who said women who applied for a job were successful, was misleading.

Mr Bonnington said: "That will be news to the many excellent lawyers who have applied and been rejected.

"Now none of the many female applicants who have been infuriated by this misleading assertion want anything more than fair treatment from the board.

"None of them expect preferential treatment because of their gender. They do not subscribe to the politically correct approach espoused by some members of the board."

At present, just one in 10 of Scotland's judges are female with one in five females being appointed to the post of sheriff. Mr Bonnington said that part of the problem was the role of lay members in the appointments process.

"A board which contains 50% lay membership, who know nothing about the work of judges and even less about how to single out those few who can carry out the task, is potentially dangerous."

Chris Orman, secretary to the board, said: "We have five lay members to keep the appointment system transparent. All 10 members are involved in every stage of the process, though we don't put 10 people on the appointment panel as that would be very daunting for candidates.

"We are not biased against females. Since we started in 2002, the number of women in the judiciary has increased and the board is looking at ways of increasing the diversity of the judiciary."

Of the 10 members of the board, two are female.