§ Mr. Winnickasked the Secretary of State for Defence if he will state the number from an ethnic minority background who are employed in his private office and those of other Ministers in his Department; and what are the positions they occupy.
§ Mr. Lee[pursuant to his reply, 22 January 1986, c. 238]: A phased programme of surveys to determine the ethnic origin of civilian staff in MOD is now being conducted. Staff in private offices have not yet taken part in these surveys, and as participation in the survey is voluntary, we are not in a position to release any ethnic information in advance. The surveys are being carried out according to an agreed code of practice on confidentiality. This code provides that no statistical data should be published which might make it easy to identify the ethnic origin of individuals.