§ Mrs. Curtis-ThomasTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what the findings were of the Diversity Monitoring Project established in October 2001 to examine Merseyside Crown Prosecution Service files for racial bias in decision-making. [146245]
§ The Solicitor-GeneralI have been asked to reply.
The question has been transferred to me for reply as the Law Officers have responsibility for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS).
The findings of the Diversity Monitoring Project, an independent study into racial or gender bias in the decision making processes of the CPS, were published in the executive summary report 'Race for Justice' on 21 October 2003. The full report will be available by the end of March 2004.
12,913 CPS files were examined to establish if race or gender bias or discrimination occurred in the prosecution process. Merseyside was one of 10 CPS areas whose files were examined by the researchers. The files were taken randomly from a wide geographical spread of areas to ensure a representative sample. The report sets out the aggregated findings from the 10 area sample and does not set out findings for individual areas.
The report outlines nine recommendations, applicable to the whole organisation, which have been accepted by CPS and which they have developed an action plan to implement.