Judges don’t deserve £60k moving costs

I was outraged to read last week how fat-cat judges have received up to £60,000 of hardearned taxpayers’ cash to move home.

The money is to pay for legal fees, estate agent bills and even soft furnishings when they are transferred to a new court. These judges already earn almost as much as the Prime Minister and are some of the highest paid public officials in the country.

I think it’s high time the Ministry of Justice started to get its house in order, and stopped making monkeys out of taxpayers, as if they had money to burn.

There have been drastic reductions in legal aid and courtrooms have been shut down because of the department’s budget being slashed by a third over the past decade. But here we have judges receiving incredibly generous sums. David Courtney, Weston-super-Mare

I was truly shocked to read your report on fat-cat judges. These astronomical payments covered travel, rent, utility and water bills, broadband, council tax, curtains… In fact, the only items not appearing were fees for gardeners, household staff and the maintenance of duck ponds! Maggie Gray, Bradford

I say these judges deserve what they are getting. If they were still working for law firms or were barristers, their earnings could far outstrip what they are getting by working as judges. Some will have sacrificed income to serve their country, which should be applauded.

What do we want? To have the country’s top legal talent looking at the packages judges receive and turning up their noses at them?

If you want to attract the best you have to pay top whack. Studying law takes years and years of hard graft and only those with the best minds are capable of rising to the top in that highly competitive profession.

They are hugely important people and judges should be well rewarded for the expertise they have garnered over the years. J. Benn, London

Well done Mail on Sunday for pursuing your marathon Freedom of Information battle with the Ministry of Justice so that you could bring us the ludicrous figures that judges are receiving for moving jobs.

It is only by such dogged determination that the Government can be held to account for what they are doing with our money. Do you think they are going to tell us of their own volition?

And may I take this opportunity to praise the now very unpopular man who brought us the opportunity to probe government departments in this way.

Yes, stand up Tony Blair, who had Freedom of Information in his 1997 manifesto and delivered it in 2000.

Things may have gone wrong for him – and he certainly made some mistakes – but on this issue he was spot-on. J. McLean, Manchester