Lord Beecham – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2014-06-11.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the data published in court proceeding tables associated with their criminal justice statistics quarterly report of December 2013, whether they plan to institute an inquiry into the higher proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences than non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences.

Lord Faulks

The Government is committed to making sure that the criminal justice system is fair and just.

The Criminal Justice System Strategy & Action Plan, published last summer, set out a number of commitments to promote equality including a series of Minister-led events with stakeholders to explore what more could be done.

The Criminal Justice Board has had several recent discussions about equality and diversity and regularly reviews the statistical data.

We do not plan to hold a specific inquiry into the proportion of black and minority ethnic defendants denied bail or receiving custodial sentences as compared with non-black and minority ethnic defendants with comparable records for similar offences but are clear that more analysis is needed to understand the underlying causes reflected in this data.

The Government will shortly publish an update to this plan which will contain further actions designed to promote equality.