§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Paymaster General if he will list the numbers of entrants to his Department from the ethnic minorities in the years 1985–86 and 1986–87; if he will also list the monitoring procedures used to ascertain the percentage of the work force represented by ethnic minorities and their patterns of promotion; what are his methods of recruitment of minorities into the Department.
§ Mr. Kenneth ClarkeWe have been surveying the ethnic origins of new entrants into my Department since October 1985. The latest available information for the period up to 31 December 1986 is as follows:
Number Total new entrants to the Department of Employment (DE) Group in period 1 October 1985–31 December 1986 11,145 Ethnic origins White 7,601 Black/Asian 632 Not stated 2,912 The Government are conducting a phased programme to survey the ethnic origin of all non-industrial civil servants by means of voluntary self-classification. The Department of Employment group has now completed its surveys. We are now considering ways of using the data on the ethnic origin of staff-in-post to monitor promotion.
All DE group recruitment is conducted on the basis of fair and open competition and selection is on merit. I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by my right hon. Friend the Minister of State, Privy Council Office, for the Civil Service on 20 February 1987 at columns 880–881 reporting the arrangements being made to encourage people from the ethnic minorities to apply to the Civil Service.