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Immigration Appeal Tribunal

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many and what proportion of Immigration Appeal Tribunal members are (a) women and (b) of Asian origin. [1052]

Mr. Hoon: On the 1 May 1997 there were a total of 26 members of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal in post. The President of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal is

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male. Of the four full-time members one is a woman. Of the 21 part-time legal members two are women. Of the 20 lay members six are women. Questions asking the ethnic origins of candidates for legal appointments to the Immigration Appeal Tribunal have been included on application forms only since 1991. Candidates are under no obligation to answer such questions. However, from information currently held I can say that two are Asian; 15 are White; one is listed as "other"; and the ethnic origins of the remaining eight are unknown. No information on the ethnic origins of lay members is collected.

Evesham Magistrates Court

Mr. Luff: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department if he will make it his policy to intervene to prevent the closure of Evesham magistrates court before the Lord Chancellor has considered the objections to the closure plan, lodged by Hereford and Worcester county council. [1061]

Mr. Hoon: Hereford and Worcester magistrates courts committee have stated that Evesham magistrates court will remain open, during this financial year, pending the determination of the appeal.

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Civil Service (Ethnic Minorities)

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what proposals he has to increase the number of ethnic minority employees in his Department. [723]

Mr. Hoon: For the Lord Chancellor's Department, including the Court Service and the Public Trust Office, the Department's Programme of action to achieve equality of opportunity for people of ethnic minority origin sets out specific commitments in respect of recruitment, retention and development of ethnic minority employees, including monitoring the impact of the commitments. Equal Opportunities statements are included in all recruitment literature and advertisements. Training on equal opportunities is obligatory for all staff in management grades, to assist in retention of ethnic minority employees. Sponsorship of ethnic minority students under the Windsor Fellowship scheme and

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provision of mentors for the National Mentoring scheme help to promote the Lord Chancellor's Department as an attractive employer to minority ethnic groups.

The Northern Ireland Court Service has no proposals/targets specific to ethnic minority employees, but it is the policy of the Service to ensure equality of opportunity for all current and potential employees on the basis of merit alone. I have asked the Chief Executives of the Land Registry and of the Public Record Office to reply separately.

Letter from Stuart Hill to Mr. Keith Vaz, dated 22 May 1997:

I have been asked by the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, to reply to your recent question concerning the number of civil servants of Asian origin in his Department and Agencies.
The table below sets out the number of employees of HM Land Registry who are of Asian origin together with their grade. The information is derived form declarations by Land Registry staff and the position is shown as on 5 May 1997.

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Grade	Mandate Equivalent Grade	Indian	Pakistani	Bangladeshi	East African	Chinese	Other	Totals
SCS1	--	1	0	0	0	0	0	1
SRA (Lawyer)	Grade 7	1	0	0	1	0	1	3
RE1	SEO	1	0	0	2	0	0	3
RE2	HEO	2	0	1	1	0	2	6
RE3	EO	16	2	0	8	3	5	34
RO1	AO	15	1	0	1	2	9	28
RO2	AO	76	6	0	24	4	16	126
RA1	AA	34	2	0	14	1	7	58
RA2	AA	18	2	2	10	2	11	45
Totals		164	13	3	61	12	51	304

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Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Keith Vaz, dated 19 May 1997:

I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question. The Office is an executive agency of the Lord Chancellor.

The numbers by grade of civil servants of Asian origin in the Public Record Office on 5 May were:

Public record office band	Civil Servant of Asian origin
3	1
4	4
5	23
6	15

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many civil servants, of each grade, in his Department, were of Asian origin, on 5 May. [722]

Mr. Hoon: For the Lord Chancellor's Department, including the Court Service and the Public Trust Office, the information is set ut in the table below. I have asked the Chief Executives of the Land Registry and the Public Record Office to reply separately. There is no legislative requirement to monitor the ethnic origin of Northern Ireland Court Service employees and no figures are available.

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Grade level	Number of civil servants of Asian origin (including casual staff)
HEO and above	16
EO	82
Bailiff	6
AO	271
AA	38
SGB 1 and 2	33
Typist	28
Total	474

Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Keith Vaz, dated 19 May 1997:

I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question. The Office is an executive agency of the Lord Chancellor.
The Public Record Office has no specific proposals to increase the number of its ethnic minority employees. It is however an equal opportunities employer and its recruitment practice follows the guidelines on fair and open competition from the Civil Service Commissioners' Recruitment Code (2nd edition 1996). Currently 17% of its employees are from ethnic minorities.

Letter from Stuart Hill to Mr. Keith Vaz, dated 22 May 1997:

I have been asked by the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, to reply to your recent question concerning proposals to increase the number of ethnic minority employees.

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HM Land Registry's Programme for action to achieve equality of opportunity for people of ethnic minority origin sets out specific commitments in respect of recruitment, retention, training and development of ethnic minority employees, including monitoring the impact of commitments.
Training on equal opportunities is mandatory for all staff on entry to a management grade and additional training is provided before staff are involved in recruitment procedures. "Equal Opportunities" statements are included in all our recruitment literature and advertisements.

High Court Judges

Mr. Vaz: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many judges at High Court level and below are (a) women and (b) of Asian origin. [1051]

Mr. Hoon: The information requested is set out in the table below. The figures are as at 1 May 1997. The figures for Asian judges are believed to be correct, but as the ethnic origin of candidates for judicial office was not recorded prior to October 1991, the information may be incomplete.

	Total number	Women	Asian
High Court Judges	96	7 (7.3 per cent.)	0
Circuit Judges	562	29 (5.2 per cent.)	4 (0.7 per cent.)
Recorders (part-time)	903	67 (7.4 per cent.)	3 (0.3 per cent.)
Assistant Recorders (part-time)	356	60 (16.8 per cent.)	3 (0.8 per cent.)
District Judges	332	37 (11.1 per cent.)	1 (0.3 per cent.)
Deputy District Judges (part-time)	690	88 (12.7 per cent.)	7 (1 per cent.)
Stipendiary Magistrates	90	15 (16.6 per cent.)	2 (2.2 per cent.)
Acting Stipendiary Magistrates (part-time)	90	16 (17.7 per cent.)	0
Chairmen of Industrial Tribunals (full-time)	80	12 (15 per cent.)	2 (2.5 per cent.)
Chairmen of Industrial Tribunals (part-time)	200	26 (13 per cent).	2 (1 per cent.)

Unsuccessful Applicants for Silk

Mr. Gordon Prentice: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many unsuccessful applicants for Silk in each year since 1992 sought an interview with officials in his Department to ascertain the factors considered by the Lord Chancellor when arriving at his decision. [704]

Mr. Hoon: The factors considered by the Lord Chancellor when arriving at his decisions on Silk are detailed in the notes provided to all applicants. The number of unsuccessful applicants who sought an interview with officials to discuss their personal position in 1995 and 1996 were 36 and 41 respectively. For earlier years the information requested is not available and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Juvenile Offenders

Mr. Malins: To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the average time between arrest and disposal for juvenile offenders in (a) juvenile courts and (b) Crown courts. [871]

Mr. Hoon: The information requested is not recorded for juveniles in the Crown court. Similar information to that required is, however, available for juveniles in the

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Youth court. In 1996, the average time from offence to completion (which may be sentence, committal, dismissal or discontinuance) for defendants in indictable cases in the Youth court was 131 days.

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