§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many(a) high court judges, (b) circuit judges, (c) district judges, (d) recorders and (e) assistant recorders there were in the last month for which figures are available; and how many were (i) black and (ii) Asian. [138764]
§ Mr. LeslieFigures for October 2003 show that there were(a) 108 high court judges of whom (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; (b) 609 circuit judges of whom (i) 1 was black and (ii) 3 were Asian; (c) in total there were 535 district judges broken down as follows: 429 district judges (civil) of whom (i) 1 was black and (ii) 8 were Asian; 106 district judges (magistrates' courts) of whom (i) none were black and (ii) 2 were Asian; in addition there were a total of 987 deputy district judges broken down as follows: 761 deputy district judges (civil) of whom (i) 4 were black and (ii) 7 were Asian; 176 deputy district judges (magistrates' courts) of whom (i) 4 were black and (ii) 5 were Asian, (d) 1367 recorders of whom (i) 19 were black and (ii) 18 were Asian; (e) the post of assistant recorder was abolished on 12 April 2000.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many(a) high court judges, (b) circuit judges, (c) district judges, (d) recorders and (e) assistant recorders were appointed in 2002; and how many were (i) black and (ii) Asian. [138765]
§ Mr. LeslieThe 2001–2002 Judicial Appointments Annual Report gives the following figures for appointments made between 1 April 2001 and 31 March 2002:(a) 9 high court judges were appointed, of these (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; (b) 20 circuit judges were appointed, of these (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; (c) in total 12 district judges were appointed, broken down as follows: 4 district judges (civil) of whom (i) none were black and (ii) 1 was Asian; 8 district judges (magistrates' courts) of whom (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian. In addition a total of 40 deputy district judges (civil) were appointed of whom (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; no deputy district judges (magistrates' courts) were appointed during this period; (d) 98 recorders were appointed, of whom (i) none were black and (ii) I was Asian; (e) the post of assistant recorder was abolished on 12 April 2000 and subsequent appointments were made direct to the office of recorder.
The 2002–2003 Judicial Appointments Annual Report gives the following figures for appointments made between 1 April 2002 and 31 March 2003: (a) 6 high court judges were appointed, of these (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; (b) during this period no new general circuit judge competitions were held; (c) in total 15 district judges (civil) were approved for appointment, of whom (i) none were black and (ii) none were Asian; there was no new general competition for appointment as district judges (magistrates' courts), in addition a total of 69 deputy district judges were 1063W appointed broken down as follows: 42 deputy district judges (civil) of whom (i) 1 was black and (ii) 2 were Asian; 27 deputy district judges (magistrates' courts) of which (i) 1 was black and (ii) 2 were Asian, (d) 93 recorders were appointed of whom (i) 2 were black and (ii) 2 were Asian; (e) the post of assistant recorder was abolished on 12 April 2000 and subsequent appointments were made direct to the office of recorder.
Copies of both reports are available in the Libraries of both Houses.
§ Mr. OatenTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Department for Constitutional Affairs how many magistrates in England and Wales were in post in the last month for which figures are available; and how many were (i) black and (ii) Asian. [138766]
§ Mr. LeslieThere were 28,344 active magistrates in England and Wales on 1 April 2003. Of that number, 609 classified themselves as of Black origin and 845 Asian.
Magistrates' courts staff in post Figures as at 31 March 2003 Post 1Total Black Asian Other Mixed Not known Justices clerks 97 — — — 1 — Senior legal manager 374 9 8 3 4 11 Senior admin manager 168 1 1 1 1 5 Court clerk 1,408 28 51 14 10 34 Principal administrative division 934 34 13 3 8 27 Administrative grades 6,342 198 190 45 40 212 Clerical 1,347 15 19 1 4 29 Total 10,669 285 281 67 68 318 1 These are full time equivalent figures