Picture caption David Lammy's 2017 report
David Lammy’s 2017 report made 35 suggestions to reform the felony justice system
The shadow justice secretary is accusing Boris Johnson of deceptive the Commons at Prime Minister’s Questions, when he claimed the federal government had carried out 16 suggestions from his evaluation into the remedy of ethnic minorities within the felony justice system.
In a letter to the prime minister – seen by the BBC – David Lammy urges Mr Johnson to appropriate what he calls “a list of falsehoods” – and says solely six of these 16 suggestions have been carried out.
Mr Lammy was requested by former Conservative prime minister David Cameron to hold out an unbiased evaluation into the remedy of individuals from black, Asian and minority ethnic communities by the felony justice system in England and Wales.
His report, printed in September 2017, contained 35 suggestions.
Throughout Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Boris Johnson stated: “Sixteen of the Lammy suggestions have been carried out. An additional 17 are in progress; two of them we aren’t progressing.”
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Earlier this week, Justice Minister Alex Chalk answered a written parliamentary query saying 16 had been “accomplished”, 17 have been nonetheless in progress and two weren’t being taken ahead.
In his letter, Mr Lammy says he presumes the prime minister was referring to the identical 16 – however says of these, solely six have really been carried out.
They embody the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) publishing all datasets held on ethnicity, the MoJ and Parole Board reporting on the proportion of prisoners launched by offence and ethnicity, in addition to the proportion of every ethnicity who go on to reoffend, and the Youth Justice Board publishing an analysis of a trial of its ‘disproportionality toolkit’.
However Mr Lammy says there are clear examples of measures that haven’t been carried out – such because the publication of all sentencing remarks in Crown Courtroom in audio or written type, and the renaming of youth offender panels.
He writes that if the federal government is critical about correcting injustices, “it must be trustworthy concerning the actions it has taken”.
He says the impact of Mr Johnson’s feedback was that the Home was misled – a breach of parliamentary guidelines – and says he should appropriate the document.
The letter is copied to the Speaker.
The Ministry of Justice and Downing Avenue have each been approached for a remark.