The chancellor's department has asked the Senior Salaries Review Body (SSRB) to review the relationship between judicial salaries and those of the senior civil service.

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Ministers have identified limited access to the professions - such as law, medicine, the senior civil service, media, finance and the upper ranks of the Armed Forces - as a major obstacle.

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The subsequent report, "Outsiders and Insiders", concluded that the senior civil service "should take appropriate measures to reduce its reliance on external recruitment, not least because outside appointees do not appear to perform better than career civil servants - despite being paid more".

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