Lord Beecham
Shadow Spokesperson (Communities and Local Government), Shadow Spokesperson (Justice)
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many lay magistrates are currently in post, broken down by (1) socio-economic, and (2) ethnic, categories.
Lord Faulks
The Minister of State, Ministry of Justice
The tables below contain the number of serving magistrates in England and Wales broken down by socio-economic category and ethnicity.
Table 1: Socio-economic category
Socio-economic category has been interpreted to mean occupational group. Magistrates provide information about their occupational status on appointment. Due to practical constraints, this information is not routinely updated; for example, when a magistrates changes occupation. The information below, therefore, reflects the position at the time of appointment.
| Occupation | Number |
| Manager or senior official | 4,080 |
| Professional occupation | 6,267 |
| Associate professional or technical occupation | 2,124 |
| Administrative or secretarial occupation | 3,260 |
| Skilled trades occupation | 398 |
| Personal service occupation | 266 |
| Sales or customer service occupation | 307 |
| Process, plant or machine operative | 142 |
| Elementary occupation | 123 |
| Never been in paid employment | 29 |
| Not in paid employment | 1,318 |
| Retired | 760 |
| Self-employed | 798 |
| Unknown | 229 |
| Total | 20,101 |
Table 2: Ethnicity
| Ethnic Category | Number |
| White | 18,271 |
| Mixed | 130 |
| Black | 599 |
| Asian | 919 |
| Chinese | 43 |
| Any Other | 137 |
| Unknown | 2 |
| Total | 20,101 |
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