§ Mr. VazTo ask the Solicitor-General how many members of the Treasury Solicitors Panel are(a) black, (b) Asian and (c) women. [11391]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralThe Attorney-General maintains three London panels for civil work, subdivided by seniority: A, for those with over 10 years' experience at the time of appointment; B, for those with between five and 10 years' experience at the time of appointment; and C, for those with between two and five years' experience at the time of appointment. The Attorney-General also maintains a Provincial Panel.
No comprehensive data are held on the ethnic origin of all members of the panel. Since the introduction of a competitive appointments system in 1998 all applicants have been asked to complete an equal opportunities monitoring form which asks them to indicate their ethnic origin. Completion of the form is voluntary and in consequence the information given may not be entirely accurate. With regard to ethnic origin, I set out the results of the equal opportunity monitoring of the recruitment exercises since 1999.
A panel
There are currently 28 members, of whom four are women.1999—of 10 appointed, one identified themselves as black; one as Asian.2000—of 12 appointed, one identified themselves as Asian.B panelThere are currently 77 members, of whom 18 are women.1999—of 23 appointed, two identified themselves as Asian.