§ Mrs. Dunwoodyasked the Attorney-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; and what are his methods of recruitment of minorities into the Department.
The Attorney-GeneralThe ethnic origins of new entrants to the Lord Chancellor's Department have been surveyed since October 1985. The latest available information for the period up to September 1986 is as follows:
Total new entrants to the Lord Chancellor's Department in the period 1 October 1985 to September 1986 is 1010: Ethnic origins Number White 680 Black/Asian 50 Not stated 280 A phased programme of departmental surveys of the ethnic origin of non-industrial civil servants by means of voluntary self-classification is being conducted. By the end of 1986 all non-industrial staff in the county of Avon, the north-west, the east and west midlands, London, the south-east and East Anglia had been surveyed. All remaining staff will be surveyed by 1987. Consideration is being given to ways of using the data on the ethnic origin of staff-in-post to monitor promotion.
All departmental 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 on 20 February 1987, at columns 880–81, reporting the arrangements being made to encourage people from the ethnic minorities to apply to the Civil Service.
As regards my own Department, the Law Officers' Department, staff come on secondment from other Departments and there are therefore no new entrants to the Civil Service.