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Going off at a slight tangent, if I as a landlord fail to establish that my tenants have the right to rent in the UK -
which involves establishing their nationality and checking visas if they are not EU/Swiss citizens - I can be sent to prison for up to 5 years (until recently a harsher sentence than for serious cruelty to animals!!) If it is not 'offensive and objectionable' for landlords to have to elicit this information from people who have not been charged with a criminal offence, why should defendants be treated differently?

I suspect the "little faith among black, Asian and minority ethnic defendants in the criminal justice system" is the same as the little faith among white working class defendants. They are unhappy because the lies they have told to exculpate themselves from the crimes they have committed have not been believed. If Mr Lammy asks BAME defendants if they object to a particular aspect of the criminal justice system, he should anticipate they will say they do. They have nothing to gain from the criminal justice system working better.