§ Miss MowlamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to make those ethnic minority communities whose first language is not English aware of the major changes to the benefits system due to come into effect in April; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PortilloFB2 "Which benefit?" is produced in six ethnic minority languages under the leaflet code FB22. The languages used are Chinese, Urdu, Hindi, Gujerati, Bengali and Punjabi. FB2/FB22 is the main social security overview leaflet, which briefly describes all the major social security benefits. It is intended to produce updated editions of FB22 later in 1988. These will cover the new benefits introduced in April. New posters advertising the new editions will go on display in social security offices and at normal distribution points.
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§ Miss MowlamTo ask the Secretary of State for Social Services what steps he is taking to ensure that his Department employs bilingual or multilingual staff in areas where there are substantial ethnic minority communities.
§ Mr. PortilloThe Department of Health and Social Security follows the long-standing principle that recruitment to the Civil Service should be by fair and open competition, and selection should be on merit. The Department's aim is that its work force should reflect the ethnic composition of the community it serves, but it does not seek to recruit bilingual or multilingual staff as such. A recent experiment at Bradford (West) local office involved the appointment of an existing member of staff as a full-time interpreter/liaison officer to the Asian community. It has been successful and we are considering proposals to extend the experiment to similar offices in other parts of the country.