§ 6. Tony Wright (Cannock Chase) (Lab)What progress his Department is making towards meeting its diversity targets. [144041]
§ The Minister for Trade and Investment (Mr. Mike O'Brien)The Foreign and Commonwealth Office targets for diversity have been met for recruitment and we are making progress on staff already in post.
§ Tony WrightI thank my hon. Friend for that answer. Why does he think that the Foreign Office is dragging so far behind other Departments in terms of the number of women and ethnic minority people that it employs? More than one in 10 children in our schools are from ethnic minorities, yet half of 1 per cent. of people from ethnic minorities are at senior levels in the Foreign Office. If the Foreign Office really is Britain's face on the world, should not that face be far more representative than it currently is?
§ Mr. O'BrienIt should be far more representative than it currently is. That is why we have set realistic targets to make that change. Targets have to be realistically achievable. The Foreign Office started in 1997 from a low base. There were few women, few ethnic minority staff and few disabled people. The Foreign Office promotes internally and it therefore takes time to change things, but we are changing things.
I am told that until 1972 women had to resign from the Foreign Office on marriage. As a result, we lost a whole generation of ambassadors who would have been 1420 in post now. Likewise with ethnic minorities there were restrictions on the employment of persons with parents of certain nationalities, and no effort was made to recruit disabled people. However, things are changing in the Foreign Office. Today there are family friendly policies and flexible working. An FCO nursery started 18 months ago. Promotion is based on skill and competence, not on time served. Likewise we are attracting ethnic minority recruits. We have doubled the number of ethnic minority staff from 3.4 per cent. in 1997 to 6.8 per cent. today. In the B grade, the important grade, it is 8.6 per cent.
Two ambassadors from ethnic minority communities were recently appointed: Mohammed Chowdry to Bangladesh and Alp Mehmet to Iceland, Britain's first Muslim ambassador. The number of women ambassadors has doubled from nine in 1997 to 18 now. Things are changing in the Foreign Office. The people from ethnic minorities and the women we are recruiting today will be the ambassadors of the future.