Sir John Edward Mitting (born 8 October 1947) is a retired judge of the High Court of England and Wales. He is currently chairing the Undercover Policing Inquiry.

Education

Mitting attended

Downside School Downside School is a co-educational Catholic independent boarding and day school in the English public school tradition for pupils aged 11 to 18. It is located between Bath, Frome, Wells and Bruton, and is attached to Downside Abbey. Originall ...

and Trinity Hall, Cambridge.

Legal career

He was

called to the bar The call to the bar is a legal term of art in most common law jurisdictions where persons must be qualified to be allowed to argue in court on behalf of another party and are then said to have been "called to the bar" or to have received "call to ...

at Gray's Inn in 1970 and made a bencher in 1996. He became a Queen's Counsel in 1987. He was appointed a

Recorder Recorder or The Recorder may refer to: Newspapers * ''Indianapolis Recorder'', a weekly newspaper * ''The Recorder'' (Massachusetts newspaper), a daily newspaper published in Greenfield, Massachusetts, US * ''The Recorder'' (Port Pirie), a news ...

in 1988. On 3 April 2001, he was appointed a High Court judge, receiving the customary Knight Bachelor, and assigned to the Queen's Bench Division. He served as Chairman of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission from 2007 to 2012. He presided over the Libel Case related to " Plebgate" and the Uber English language tests case. He retired as a High Court judge on his 70th birthday in 2017, and has been appointed to chair the Undercover Policing Inquiry, following the resignation due to ill-health of Lord Justice Pitchford. In March 2018 campaigners and their legal team walked out of a hearing of the inquiry, calling for him to step down.

Personal life

Mitting is married to Judith, a retired solicitor who also sat as a part-time judge specialising in tax tribunals. Lady Mitting was previously managing partner of Grindeys solicitors in

Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England, with an area of . In 2019, the city had an estimated population of 256,375. It is the largest settlement ...

. She is the Chair of Katharine House Hospice in

Stafford Stafford () is a market town and the county town of Staffordshire, in the West Midlands region of England. It lies about north of Wolverhampton, south of Stoke-on-Trent and northwest of Birmingham. The town had a population of 70,145 in t ...

References

1947 births Living people Alumni of Trinity Hall, Cambridge 21st-century English judges Queen's Bench Division judges Knights Bachelor {{UK-law-bio-stub