§ Mr. Arthur Lewisasked the Minister for the Civil Service if, pursuant to her reply given to the hon. Member for Cannock (Mr. Roberts) on 21 October, Official Report, column 132, in relation to ethnic monitoring of the Civil 64W Service, she will now take steps to record the ethnic origin of staff in the higher grades of the Civil Service in each Department; or if she will give her reasons for deciding not to do so.
§ Mr. HayhoeI refer the hon. Member to the statement made by the Home Secretary in the House on 10 December. My noble and right hon. Friend the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster intends to seek the co-operation of the Council of Civil Service Unions and the Commission for Racial Equality in an experimental census of the ethnic composition of some non-industrial grades in a limited geographical area. Its purpose would be to establish a sound statistical method for monitoring in the Civil Service. In the light of the results of this experiment, the Government will consider further how to proceed.