CAT/OP/GBR/CSPRO/1 that has been evident for the last number of years. In order to explore factors that influence over-representation generally, the Youth Justice Agency in NI has commissioned Queen’s University Belfast to carry out research into this area. A report is due by the summer of 2021. “e) intensify the training and awareness-raising of prosecutors, judges, lawyers and police officers in the Criminal Justice System.” England and Wales Race disproportionality and training for prosecutors 85. Prosecutors must be fair, objective and independent. When deciding whether to prosecute a criminal case, lawyers must follow the Code for Crown Prosecutors ‘The Code’. The Code gives guidance to prosecutors on the general principles to be applied when making decisions about prosecutions. These general principles help to ensure groups, including minority groups, are treated fairly and include a number of provisions which include when making decisions, prosecutors must be fair and objective. 86. Training on the Public Sector Equality Duty is also a mandatory requirement for all lawyers as of February 2020. This is to ensure that prosecutors understand the importance of ‘consciously considering’ the needs of victims, witnesses and defendants with particular protected characteristics, including ethnic minority groups through the prosecution process. 87. The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has also put in place a structure for community engagement at national and local levels. Communities provide direct feedback on the way in which CPS decisions impact upon them, enabling the CPS to assess whether additional support for prosecutors is required to ensure that their application of the Code is not influenced by factors that may be a product of bias. This includes: • Community Accountability Forum (CAF) meetings, chaired by the CPS Chief Executive Officer and an independent co-chair, with a diverse membership. CAF meetings focus on particular themes, enabling the CPS to hear from communities on particular issues; • Local Scrutiny and Involvement Panels (LSIPs), chaired by Chief Crown Prosecutors, with membership drawn from local communities. LSIPs scrutinise CPS decisionmaking on a variety of cases, ensuring that prosecutorial decision-making is informed by an understanding of community perspectives; • Community Conversations, chaired by Chief Crown Prosecutors, where community members can raise issues of local concern directly with the CPS. Training for judges 88. The judiciary of England and Wales is also independent of Government. The Lord Chief Justice (LCJ), the Senior President of the Tribunals, and the Chief Coroner have statutory responsibility for training, under the Constitutional Reform Act 2005, Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act 2007, and Coroners and Justice Act 2009 respectively. Training responsibilities are exercised through the Judicial College. 89. The Judicial College has a governing principle which requires diversity to be embedded into all training using examples of the social context in which judging occurs. Social context includes diversity, equality and social mobility. It is also the College’s goal to integrate the topic of bias in all induction and continuation training. Judicial trainers are provided with guidance on how to integrate fair treatment and diversity into jurisdiction specific induction and continuation training programmes which are delivered to all judicial office-holders. 90. Social context and diversity are embedded in the competence frameworks for judges and magistrates. This all reflects the judicial oath, to ‘do right to all manner of people after the laws and usages of this realm, without fear or favour, affection or ill will.’ 91. All judges have access to the Equal Treatment Bench Book (ETBB) which is a comprehensive guide on equal treatment issues and is publicly available at: 15