The Lammy review published in September 2017, identified racial disparities within the Criminal Justice System (CJS), arising from the point of arrest through to rehabilitation within custody and the community. The Review made 35 recommendations for the Government to consider and implement.
The Lammy review presents a major impetus and opportunity to make transformative change in tackling persistent inequality within the CJS. The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) committed as a result in December 2017 to take practical steps to address racial disparity in the CJS wherever it may be found.
We accepted the principle of “explain or reform” set out as a structured approach to identify and address racial disparities. MoJ is taking forward every recommendation in some way, and where a recommendation could not be implemented in full or exactly as set out, alternative approaches have been sought to achieve the same aim.
As our work and insight into racial disparities in the CJS develops, this update highlights that we are beginning to take wider leadership in this area and developing action over and above the commitments made in response to the Lammy review. Our work on ethnic and racial disparity in the Criminal Justice System is coordinated by a dedicated team and overseen by the Race and Ethnicity Board chaired by MOJ’s Director General for Justice Analysis and Offender Policy. Both were newly created following the Lammy review.
We are committed to transparency and accountability in our work. This report provides an overview of the achievements and work we have undertaken so far in 2018, and our plans to sustain progress. The structure follows a journey through the Criminal Justice System, with additional information on cross cutting measures which apply at any stage of the CJS at the start and more information on net steps at the end.
This report is supplemented by annexes showing an update against each of the 35 recommendations of the Lammy review (Annex 1), and a summary of available data on ethnicity in the CJS (Annex 2). MoJ has worked with our agencies and other organisations including the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime, the judiciary and the voluntary sector, to take action on the recommendations and MoJ would like to thank them for their contributions to this report.
The work described in this report are elements of a far wider cross-Government effort to tackle racial disparities in many policy areas. The Prime Minister has committed to challenging disparities in how people from different backgrounds are treated within society through publication of the Race Disparity Audit in 2017, which has provided impetus for a wide range of subsequent data and policy initiatives.
