HC Deb 09 December 1985 vol 88 c536W
Mr. Peter Bruinvels

asked the Paymaster General, pursuant to the answer of 2 December to the hon. Member for Leicester East, Official Report, what information he has about (a) the level of resources being devoted to positive action under sections 37 and 38 of the Race Relations Act 1967 and (b) the particular ethnic minority groups who are under-represented in particular work and the extent to which they are first generation immigrants, (c) the extent of their under-representation and (d) the particular areas both by category of employment and geographical location, where such under-representation occurs; and if he will give, in each case, the source of his information.

Mr. Peter Bottomley

Ten training organisations have been designated under the provisions of section 37 of the Race Relations Act. Designation work under section 37 is undertaken within a small policy section in the Department of Employment headquarters. Encouragement and training initiatives under the provisions of section 38 are undertaken by employers in the light of their particular circumstances. No information is available on the level of resources involved.

Information on the level of under-representation in particular work, the particular racial groups involved and geographical locations cannot be provided in the form requested.

Under section 38 the existence of under-representation in particular work is a matter for the individual employer concerned to assess in the light of his circumstances. An employer would need to be satisfied that at any time within the previous 12 months there were no persons of a particular racial group doing that particular work at his establishment or the proportion of persons of that racial group among those doing that work at the establishment was small in comparison with the proportion of that group either:

  1. (a) all those employed at the establishment; or
  2. (b) the population of the area from which the employer normally recruited for work at the establishment.
In these circumstances it would be lawful for an employer to provide access to training for that work to his employees of the racial group in question only, and he could also lawfully encourage members of that racial group to take advantage of opportunities for doing that work. This exception does not however make it lawful for the employer to discriminate at the point of selection for such work.

Applications for designation under section 37 are considered on an individual basis when applications by training bodies are put to my right hon. and Noble Friend for consideration. For this purpose a racial group would be under-represented in particular work where it appeared to the training body that at any time within the preceeding twelve months there were no persons of that group, or comparatively few, among those doing that work in Great Britain.

In view of my hon. Friend's interest, I am writing to suggest a meeting to discuss our mutual concern that the best person should be chosen for a job without discrimination.