Speeches

Sadiq Khan – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sadiq Khan on 2015-02-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of magistrates were (a) female, (b) male and (c) of BAME origin on 1 April (i) 1989, (ii) 1994, (iii) 2000, (iv) 2005, (v) 2010 and (vi) 2014.

Mr Shailesh Vara

Magistrates from diverse backgrounds are vital in retaining public confidence in our justice system. We encourage applications from people from all walks of life who have the necessary skills, and we will continue to work to ensure that our magistrates reflect the make-up of modern Britain.

Ethnic diversity data for the magistracy is not recorded for 1989, 1994, and 2000. The available data is shown below.

Year

Male

Female

BAME

1989

57%

43%

1994

54%

46%

2000

51%

49%

2005

50%

50%

7%

2010

49%

51%

8%

2014

48%

52%

9%