§ Mr. Rookerasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will take steps to require the construction industry training board to keep ethnic records of those in training.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe Government do not require industrial training boards to keep records of the ethnic origin of trainees. Such matters are primarily for the boards themselves to decide.
In its role as a managing agent, the construction industry training board notifies the Manpower Services Commission of the ethnic origins of trainees recruited to its youth training scheme.
There is no formal requirement for employers or training bodies to undertake ethnic monitoring. However the Commission for Racial Equality's code of practice, which does not extend the law, recommends that employers monitor the effects of selection decisions and personnel practices and procedures in order to assess whether equal opportunity is being achieved. The code leaves it to individual employers to determine how this might be done.