The Lord Chancellor’s Department (LCD) has been forced to concede that its modest target of increasing the proportion of women who are made QCs to 20% by 2010 is under threat due to a drop in the number of successful candidates this year.

The admission is made in the 2001-02 judicial appointments annual report, which concedes that progress in promoting women to the ranks of QCs has not been as positive as parallel efforts to secure more women judges.