Welcome to Hard Talk on the BBC World Service with me, Stephen Sacker. My guest today is the most

senior judge in the United Kingdom, the president of the Supreme Court Lady Hale. Now, the Supreme

Court has itself a relatively new judicial institution in a land admired around the world for the

longevity and independence of its legal system.

The court was created 10 years ago to be the final Court of Appeal, and in recent years,

it's handled a series of landmark cases involving everything from Brexit to divorce law

and assisted suicide. The court has jettisoned tradition and opened itself up to TV cameras

and live streaming. The aim to boost transparency and improve public confidence and trust in the

legal system. But there are significant ways in which the vaunted British judicial system

appears to be failing the people it is supposed to serve.

Resources have been cut. Courts face backlogs of cases. Financial aid for legal representation has

dwindled, and the entire system stands accused of perpetuating a white and male set of biases.

Lady Hale has had an illustrious legal career, much of it spent

fighting for progressive reform. And now that she's president of the Supreme Court, how does she

respond to the talk of a judicial system in crisis? Lady Hale, welcome to hard talk. You have had a seat on the Supreme Court since its

foundation some 10 years ago. It is something new in the British Constitution. Do you think it's made a

difference? It's made a bit of a difference. There was, of course, always a top court for the whole

United Kingdom, but we

used to be a committee of the House of Lords. And then in 2009, we became this brand new

institution, the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom. So we moved out of the houses of Parliament

across the square, into the Old Middlesex Guildhall, where we have a very beautiful, open, transparent, accessible

building where we do the same job that we did before.

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