To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many members of the judiciary in England and Wales were from an ethnic minority in (a) 1989 and (b) 1995. [3652]

The ethnic origin of candidates for judicial appointment was not collected prior to autumn 1991, so the available information may not be complete. There are no readily available records for 1989. The earliest readily available and current figures for full-time and part-time judiciary are set out in the table.

Returns from 104 of the 105 magistrates courts committees in England and Wales showed that in 1995 there was a total of 11,083 staff, of whom 436 declared they were from an ethnic minority. A breakdown by grade is in the table.There are no figures available for 1989. There was no requirement to keep such figures at that time.