She was made a dame (DBE) on appointment to the High Court in 1979, and was sworn in to the Privy Council in 1988 when she became the first woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal. When she retired as a judge in 2005, she was awarded Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (GBE). In 2006, the government announced that she would be awarded a life peerage as Baroness Butler-Sloss. She sits as a independent peer in the House of Lords.