Contribution
My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, for providing the opportunity for such a vital debate. I am delighted to see the noble and learned Lord, Lord Leveson, sitting on the Cross Benches. I thank him for his excellent and wise but very sobering maiden speech.
I speak as the honorary president of the Zahid Mubarek Trust—ZMT—which was founded some 25 years ago following the murder of Zahid while on remand in a young offender institution. He was placed in a cell with a known racist who had a history of extreme violence. The subsequent public inquiry uncovered 186 missed opportunities to protect Zahid and exposed institutional racism within the Prison Service. The ZMT exists to promote racial equality in prisons and runs innovative programmes to enable greater racial equality and programmes on leadership.
In the 25 years since the murder of Zahid, there has been a series of initiatives and reviews to improve racial equality in the Prison Service and the criminal justice system. Despite this, there is worrying evidence of significant racial disparities in both prisons and more widely in criminal justice. Some 27% of the prison population in England and Wales comes from ethnic communities. However, if the prison population were to reflect the UK’s ethnic make-up, there would be 9,000 fewer men and boys in prison.
Offenders from ethnic minorities have a disproportionately higher likelihood of receiving custodial sentences, even after taking higher not guilty plea rates into account. Defendants from minority-ethnic groups are far more likely to be remanded in custody, and Black prisoners serve a far greater proportion of determinate sentences. The use of force against Black prisoners is much higher. The most recent figures show 409 incidents per 1,000 Black prisoners, compared to 209 incidents for white prisoners. The prison inspectorate’s annual report for 2024-25 aggregated the data from sample surveys, broken down between white prisoners and all other ethnic groups. Those in the latter category consistently expressed more negative experiences than their white peers. On 69% of the topics covered, the “other ethnic group” category was significantly more likely to report negative experiences. These included access to jobs, the library, medical appointments, education and training opportunities, and help in preparing for release.
So there is no denying that there continue to be racial disparities in prisons. The question is: what more can be done? A commitment by the Minister to work with voluntary organisations, including the Zahid Mubarek Trust, to monitor, for example, the implementation of the progression regime that will be introduced by the Sentencing Act 2026, would be very welcome, since there is genuine concern that ethnic-minority prisoners will not benefit to the same extent as white prisoners.
Finally, it is disturbing that there is no national plan or strategy to promote racial equality in prisons. His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service has nominated senior civil servant race champions and has a national team with a brief to advance racial inclusion. However, a letter to the co-director of the Zahid Mubarek Trust on 1 May from the briefing and correspondence team of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service stated that
“there is no single, overarching strategy or action plan focused specifically on reducing racial disparity within prisons, nor is there a centrally held budget dedicated solely to race equality … at a local level, prisons are required to maintain their own Diversity and Inclusion plans, which are tailored to local needs and are not consolidated into a single national document. Budgetary responsibility for related activity sits locally, rather than being captured within a single, centrally held budget”.
That is real Civil Service language. Of course, it makes sense for local initiatives to be tailored to the local situation in a particular prison, but it is difficult to see how continuing racial disparities can be tackled effectively without an overarching national strategy and action plan to promote racial equality in the prison system.