FIRST MINISTER Alex Salmond is under pressure to overhaul the judiciary by appointing female and ethnic minority judges as a way of dismantling one of Scotland's last "old boy's networks".

The bench, which has three vacancies, has been described as full of "Edinburgh snobs" following an investigation by the Sunday Herald.

The judges who sit in the High Court and Court of Session are overwhelmingly white, male, and privileged, having attended the same schools as one another and even living in the same streets.

Salmond will enter talks soon with the country's most senior judge, Lord Hamilton, about recommending three new additions to the bench for approval by the Queen.

Equality organisations, legal groups and opposition parties at Holyrood are now urging Salmond to make diversity a key consideration when agreeing new appointments.

Alex Neil, an SNP MSP for Central Scotland, said: "The judiciary is nothing more than an old-boy's network, which is very difficult for anyone to break into.''