§ Mr. BoatengTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many members of the Lord Chancellor's advisory committee on the appointment of magistrates for each of the commission areas in England and Wales are of Afro-Caribbean or Asian origin.
Mr. John M. TaylorThe number of members of the Lord Chancellor's advisory committees who are of Afro-Caribbean or Asian racial origin are as follows:
Commission area Asian Afro Caribbean Cleveland 1 — East Sussex 1 — Inner London 1 1 Isle of Wight — 1 Leicestershire — 2 Middlesex 1 1 Nottinghamshire — 1 Oxfordshire — 1 Staffordshire 1 — Tyne and Wear — 1 West Midlands 4 — West Yorkshire 4 — No other advisory committees presently have members of Afro-Caribbean or Asian racial origin.
§ Mr. BoatengTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many justices of the peace, for each of the commission areas in England and Wales are of Afro-Caribbean or Asian origin.
Mr. John M. TaylorThis information is not recorded centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost, but of 2,017 appointments made in 1991, a total of 97 were from the ethnic minorities. That is a total higher than the proportion of ethnic minorities in the age group from which magistrates are normally appointed.