HL Deb 24 July 1989 vol 510 c1291WA
Lord Hylton

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What records are kept centrally of the ethnic origins of prisoners in England and Wales; and whether it is the case that black offenders receive proportionately more custodial sentences than white ones.

Earl Ferrers

Details of the recording practice for the ethnic origins of prisoners were published in 1986(1) and information is published annually in Prison Statistics, England and Wales.(2)

Studies published (3,4) by the Home Office indicate that black offenders receive proportionately more custodial sentences than whites. However, these differences are greatly reduced when the types of offence committed by offenders in the different ethnic groups are taken into consideration. Further research to help understand the reasons for such differences is being proposed. Copies of all publications are in the Library:

  1. (1) The Ethnic origins of prisoners: The Prison Population on 30th June 1985 and persons received July 1984-March 1985, Home Office Statistical Bulletin 17/86, (June 1986);
  2. (2) see Prison Statistics, England and Wales, 1987 (Cmnd. 547);
  3. (3) D. Moxon, Sentencing Practice in the Crown Court, Home Office Research Report No. 103 (December 1988);
  4. (4) The Ethnic Group of those proceeded against or sentenced by the courts, in the Metropolitan Police District in 1984 and 1985, Home Office Statistical Bulletin 6/89 (March 1989).