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In recent years, there has been considerable policy and academic interest in the existence of ethnic inequalities in the Criminal Justice System. A large body of sentencing research has been dedicated to exploring whether ethnic minority defendants are treated more harshly than similarly situated white defendants. This paper extends this research utilizing Ministry of Justice linked criminal justice datasets and multilevel models to assess the effect of ethnicity and other defendant case and contextual factors on sentencing outcomes in the Crown Court. The analysis shows that legal characteristics such as plea, pre-trial detention, offence type and severity are important factors determining sentencing outcomes although they do not fully explain disparities in these outcomes between ethnic groups. Ethnic disparities in imprisonment persist and, in some cases, become more pronounced after controlling for defendant case and court factors. In contrast, ethnic disparities in sentence length are largely explained by legal factors, and after adjusting for other predictors of sentencing outcomes, observed differences between most (but not all) ethnic minority groups and the white British disappear. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The latest data on teacher recruitment and retention in England shows that teacher supply is in a critical state, representing a substantial risk to the quality of education. Last year's initial teacher training (ITT) recruitment was below target in almost every secondary subject, while this year's applications data suggests significant improvements for the current cycle are unlikely. Meanwhile, little progress has been made on reducing high teacher workload since the pandemic, which has a strong impact on retention. This affirms that actions that are ambitious and radical, yet costeffective are urgently needed. The aim of the National Foundation for Educational Research's (NFER) annual series of Teacher Labour Market reports is to monitor the progress the school system in England is making towards meeting the teacher supply challenge. The report summarises new research and key trends in teacher recruitment, retention and working conditions and points towards policy actions that are likely to have the greatest impact on addressing the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]