Judiciary and Prisons

(asked on 11th June 2020) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) judges, (b) magistrates, (c) prison officers, (d) probation officers and (e) prison governors employed in 2020 and for each of the last five years broken down by (i) ethnicity and (ii) gender.


Answered by
Chris Philp Portrait
Chris Philp
Minister of State (Home Office)
This question was answered on 18th June 2020

Following the recommendations of the Lammy Review, we have appointed a Senior BAME Staff Recruitment and Progression Lead to the MoJ Resourcing Team working closely with four BAME Progression Leads in HMPPS.

We have implemented improvements to our recruitment processes to reduce time and cost to hire, increase the diversity of new recruits and ensure we attract the right people with the right skills.

The number of court and tribunal judges and magistrates as at 1 April in the five years from 2015 to 2019 is shown in the tables, based on data held by Judicial Office. Data for April 2020 is scheduled for publication in September 2020.

Table 1a: Court judges in England and Wales1 by gender and ethnicity2, as at 1 April 2015 to 2019

1 April 2015

1 April 2016

1 April 2017

1 April 2018

1 April 2019

Gender

Female

817

882

890

875

1013

Male

2,421

2,320

2,244

2,103

2,197

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

159

174

173

171

205

Of which

Asian or Asian British

71

79

78

78

100

Black or Black British

26

26

28

28

30

Other ethnic group

27

28

28

24

26

Mixed Ethnic Groups

35

41

39

41

49

White

2,527

2,506

2,438

2,338

2,564

Unknown

552

522

523

469

441

Total

3,238

3,202

3,134

2,978

3,210

Table 1b: Tribunal judges in England and Wales1 by gender and ethnicity2, as at 1 April 2015 to 2019

1 April 2015

1 April 2016

1 April 2017

1 April 2018

1 April 2019

Gender

Female

878

846

806

775

861

Male

1,126

1,048

980

928

993

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

177

177

168

167

192

Of which

Asian or Asian British

76

77

75

75

96

Black or Black British

33

34

32

31

31

Other ethnic group

41

37

33

33

30

Mixed Ethnic Groups

27

29

28

28

35

White

1,691

1,580

1,485

1,404

1,530

Unknown

136

137

133

132

132

Total

2,004

1,894

1,786

1,703

1,854

Table 2: Serving magistrates in England and Wales1 by gender and ethnicity2, as at 1 April 2015 to 2019

1 April 2015

1 April 2016

1 April 2017

1 April 2018

1 April 2019

Gender

Female

10,413

9,299

8,712

8,220

8,019

Male

9,221

8,253

7,417

6,783

6,329

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

1,828

1,723

1,686

1,655

1,653

Of which

Asian or Asian British

959

820

889

874

868

Black or Black British

591

507

548

533

536

Other ethnic group

142

319

120

119

115

Mixed Ethnic Groups

136

77

129

129

134

White

17,803

15,662

13,958

12,726

11,823

Unknown

0

167

485

622

872

Total

19,634

17,552

16,129

15,003

14,348

Notes to tables 1-2

  1. Figures relate to primary appointments i.e. each individual is counted once, and not for each appointment held
  2. Ethnicity is a non-mandatory fields collected by self-declaration at point of entry, and is not always declared

Source: Judicial Office e-HR system

The number of prison officers, probation officers and prison governors employed in HMPPS as at 31 March 2015 to 2020 are provided in the following tables.

Table 3: Band 3-5 prison officers1 in post by gender and ethnicity2, as at 31 March 2015 to 2020

31 March 2015

31 March 2016

31 March 2017

31 March 2018

31 March 2019

31 March 2020

Gender

Female

4,553

4,716

4,897

5,836

6,495

6,487

Male

14,405

14,373

14,277

15,985

16,963

16,314

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

927

923

928

842

1,138

1,431

Of which

Asian or Asian British

206

206

204

182

262

338

Black or Black British

401

396

410

387

505

628

Other ethnic group

199

213

214

190

275

363

Mixed Ethnic Groups

121

108

100

83

96

102

White

16,180

15,525

14,992

13,661

15,267

17,059

Not Known / Prefer not to say

1,851

2,641

3,254

7,318

7,053

4,311

Total

18,958

19,089

19,174

21,821

23,458

22,801

Table 4: Band 4 probation officers in post by gender and ethnicity2, as at 31 March 2015 to 2020

31 March 2015

31 March 2016

31 March 2017

31 March 2018

31 March 2019

31 March 2020

Gender

Female

2,580

2,651

2,951

2,836

2,802

2,907

Male

928

936

964

893

847

836

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

71

145

234

251

375

429

Of which

Asian or Asian British

23

52

85

86

118

133

Black or Black British

27

55

85

97

162

191

Other ethnic group

~

34

56

60

84

94

Mixed Ethnic Groups

~

4

8

8

11

11

White

683

1,362

1,936

1,896

2,421

2,762

Not Known / Prefer not to say

2,754

2,080

1,745

1,582

853

552

Total

3,508

3,587

3,915

3,729

3,649

3,743

Table 5: Band 10-11 Governing Governors3 in post by gender and ethnicity2, as at 31 March 2015 to 2020

31 March 2015

31 March 2016

31 March 2017

31 March 2018

31 March 2019

31 March 2020

Gender

Female

30

26

32

32

30

33

Male

70

71

66

68

58

64

Ethnicity

All BAME groups

7

9

10

11

12

13

Of which

Asian or Asian British

~

~

~

~

~

~

Black or Black British

~

~

~

~

~

~

Other ethnic group

4

6

7

8

9

9

Mixed Ethnic Groups

~

~

~

~

~

~

White

89

84

83

84

72

77

Not Known / Prefer not to say

4

4

5

5

4

7

Total

100

97

98

100

88

97

Notes to tables 3-5

1. Band 3-5 Officers includes Band 3-4 / Prison Officers (incl. specialists), Band 4 / Supervising Officers, and Band 5 / Custodial Managers.

2. All staff have gender assigned but ethnicity is a self-declared field and is optional to complete.

3. Includes Governing Governors working in prison establishments and excludes those based in HQ. Figures do not include deputy governors or those acting up as a Governing Governor on a temporary promotion basis.

~ denotes suppressed values of 2 or fewer or other values which would allow values of 2 or fewer to be derived by subtraction. Low numbers are suppressed to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998.

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