HC Deb 01 November 2001 vol 373 cc798-9W
Mr. Vaz

To ask the Solicitor-General how many and what percentage of chief Crown prosecutors are(a) black, (b) Asian and (c) women. [11390]

The Solicitor-General

The Chief Crown Prosecution cadre comprises of 42 Chief Crown Prosecutors and five London-based Assistant Chief Crown Prosecutors, of whom 44 have provided details of their ethnic origin.

The Cabinet Office Code of Practice on Recording the Ethnicity of Staff, in its guidance on the use of ethnicity data, states that: It is Civil Service policy that where there are fewer than five people from any ethnic group identified in summaries, exact numbers will not be published". The statistics are:

  1. (a) fewer than five (less than 11.4 per cent.) have declared that they are black;
  2. (b) fewer than five (less than 11.4 per cent.) have declared they are Asian; and
  3. (c) Eight (17.0 per cent.) are female
2000–01—of 14 appointed, none was as a member of an ethnic minority. C panel There are 73 members, of whom 27 are women. 1999—of 48 appointed, one identified themselves as Asian; one as from some other group or class. 2000—of 11 appointed, one identified themselves as Asian. 2001—of 21 appointed, none was a member of an ethnic minority Provincial Panel There are 155 members, of whom 16 are women. 2000—of 56 appointed; one identified themselves as black; one as Asian. The Law Officers are committed to promoting diversity and equal opportunity with respect to membership of the panels and actively encourage woman and ethnic minorities to apply. Advertisements for all recruitment exercises appear in the specialist legal journals "Bar News" and "The Law Society's Gazette" and state that women and members of ethnic minorities are particularly encouraged to apply.