§ Mr. Dubsasked the Paymaster General if he will make a statement on the nature and extent of racial discrimination in employment.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeResearch studies over recent years have shown that the ethnic minorities in Britain continue to suffer racial discrimination in employment. The Policy Studies Institute report "Racial Discrimination —17 Years After the Act" published in 1985 concluded that racial discrimination in employment remained as common as it was a decade ago with at least a third of employers discriminating against black job seekers. The PSI publication "Black and White Britain" published in 1984 showed that people of Asian and West Indian origin at work tended to have jobs with lower pay and lower status than those of white workers. The 1984 labour force survey showed that unemployment rates were generally much higher for the ethnic minorities than whites with similar characteristics such as age group and level of qualification. These findings reinforce the Government's commitment to the removal of racial discrimination and the promotion of effective equal opportunities in employment regardless of race.