The Rt Hon Sir Ernest Ryder
Senior President of Tribunals in the UK, Lord Justice of Appeal in England and Wales
Speaker's biography
Sir Ernest Ryder is the Senior President of Tribunals in the United Kingdom and is a Lord Justice of Appeal in England and Wales. He is also the senior judicial member of the Board of Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service and the Judicial Reform Board for England and Wales. He was formerly a judge of the Family Division of the High Court.
Until his appointment to the Court of Appeal, Sir Ernest was the Presiding Judge of the Northern Circuit where he sat in the criminal, civil and administrative courts as well as in family proceedings. As Judge in Charge of the Modernisation of Family Justice, he was responsible for the creation of the Family Court and the family justice modernisation programme in England and Wales.
In addition to his appointment as the Senior President, he is the Head of Deployment Strategy for the Lord Chief Justice and the Course Director of the Leadership Programme at the Judicial College. He regularly lectures at the Judicial College, the Judicial Institute in Scotland and at Universities across the United Kingdom.
Sir Ernest started his professional life as a merchant banker and has also been a commissioned officer in the Army Reserves. He is the Chancellor Emeritus of the University of Bolton, an honorary Professor of Law at the Universities of Lancaster and Bolton, a Visiting Fellow of Nuffield College, University of Oxford, an Associate Writer of the Signet in Scotland, a Deputy Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, an Honorary Member of the Society of Legal Scholars and a Trustee of the Nuffield Foundation.
