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Chief Crown Prosecutors

Volume 448: debated on Wednesday 5 July 2006

To ask the Solicitor-General how many chief Crown prosecutors in England and Wales were from black and Asian minorities in each year since 1997. (81586)

The number of chief Crown prosecutors in England and Wales who were from black and ethnic minorities, for which data are available, is shown in the following table.

Month/year

Item

BME

White

Total percentage

April 2002

Number

4

36

Percentage

10.0

90.0

100

April 2003

Number

3

40

Percentage

7.0

93.0

100

April 2004

Number

4

36

Percentage

10.0

90.0

100

April 2005

Number

6

40

Percentage

13.0

87.0

100

April 2006

Number

7

38

Percentage

15.6

84.4

100

To ask the Solicitor-General what steps are being taken by his Department to ensure that the number of chief Crown prosecutors in England and Wales from black and Asian minorities better reflects the ratio in the population. (81587)

In common with other Whitehall Departments, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has produced a diversity delivery plan to support the delivery of targets across the senior civil service (which includes the chief Crown prosecutor grade) range of diversity categories by 2008. As at April 2006, the CPS has seven black and minority ethnic (BME) chief Crown prosecutors (of whom two are of Asian origin). This BME total represents 15.6 per cent. of staff at that level within the service.