§ Mr. William RossTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, pursuant to her speech to the Royal Geographical Society, if she will list the legal obstacles to employers recruiting directly from the long-term unemployed. [35844]
§ Mr. IngramRestricting the field of recruitment to the long-term unemployed brings with it a greater risk of the pool of potential candidates being disproportionately of one religion, gender or, possibly, race. In such circumstances a person of another religion, gender or race may have grounds for making a complaint of indirect discrimination on the basis that persons of his/her religion, gender or race in Northern Ireland were less able to satisfy the criterion of being long-term unemployed.