§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what is the total membership of boards of visitors throughout the United Kingdom; and what number and percentages of them are members of ethnic minorities.
§ Mr. MellorThe complement of all boards of visitors in England and Wales is 1,767 and on 14 December there were 1,630 members in post. The information that is held centrally indicates that of these, 127 (8 per cent.) were members of ethnic minorities. Visiting committees in Scotland are the responsibility of my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland, and boards of visitors and visiting committees in Northern Ireland are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland.
§ Mr. SheermanTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps he has taken to increase ethnic minority representation on the board of visitors of Her Majesty's prison, Brixton.
§ Mr. MellorIn making appointments to a board of visitors, consideration is given to the abilities of the individual candidate to discharge the duties effectively and the desirability of maintaining, so far as possible, a representative balance on the board in terms, for example, of age, sex and social and ethnic background. No fewer than two members of the board are required to be justices of the peace. The membership of individual boards is reviewed every three years.
The board of visitors for Her Majesty's prison, Brixton, currently has 12 members and one vacancy. Two members of the board are from the ethnic minorities.