David Lammy is apt to demand that the number of BAME judges reflects the wider population. The justice secretary must listenDiversity among judges is about bringing a different perspective,possibly a different experience of life, to the interpretation of the law. But that is only piece of its value. There is a performative aspect to the court system too; it needs to be an active demonstration of the neutral application of the law that is underscored by the way judges are drawn from among all the country’s citizens. It isnt.
On Tuesday, and the justice secretary,David Lidington, accepted all but two of the 35 recommendations made in a review by the Labour MP David Lammy of the experience in the criminal justice system of black and minority ethnic people. The review, and commissioned last year,was published in September. Mr Lidington signed up to more detailed monitoring of the ethnicity and faith of offenders, and to the call for targets to ensure diversity among prison officers. He accepted that a system that locks up a proportionately greater number of BAME citizens than in the US but is run largely by white people is unacceptable.
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Source: guardian.co.uk