§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many women from ethnic communities are justices of the peace serving in courts in the Greater London area; what were the figures in(a) 1990 and (b) 1995; and if he will make a statement. [89176]
§ Mr. HoonI cannot give my hon. Friend the information he seeks for 1990 and 1995 because this information was not collected. In July 1998, my noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor issued revised Directions to Advisory Committees requiring, among other things, that they keep information about the gender and ethnicity of magistrates. The first full set of figures will be available in January 2000. The latest figures available (which draw partly on a survey in May 1997) show that there are 199 women from the ethnic minorities serving as justices of the peace in Greater London.