HC Deb 25 July 1988 vol 138 cc33-4W
Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what was the grade of the 2 per cent. of respondents in(a) the diplomatic wing and (b) the aid wing who classified themselves as coming from an ethnic minority.

Mrs. Chalker

I refer the hon. and learned Gentleman to the reply my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary gave him on 22 June.

Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will place a copy of his updated ethnic monitoring programmes in the Library.

Mrs. Chalker

Our ethnic monitoring programmes are updated regularly as new information is received. Up-to-date figures for the FCO will be included in a further Cabinet Office survey report covering the whole of the Civil Service, which will be published later this year.

Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he expects processing of applications from the advertisement in theVoice to be completed; whether he will then inform the House of the results thereof; and what other newspapers with a large ethnic minority readership he uses for the advertisement of vacancies in his Department.

Mrs. Chalker

The processing of these applications is unlikely to be completed before the end of the year. There are no plans to inform the House of the results.

Both the diplomatic and development wings have advertised in the "South London Press". The development wing has also used the North London Group of newspapers, which include the "Islington Gazette" "The Wood Green Journal", "The Hornsey Journal", and "The Tottenham Journal".

Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in what quasi-governmental bodies or other organisations under his aegis he has authority to request or require the carrying out of ethnic monitoring exercises in accordance with the code of the Commission for Racial Equality; and what ethnic monitoring and equal opportunities exercises have been carried out by each such department.

Mrs. Chalker

Non-departmental public bodies sponsored by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are responsible for arrangements for recruitment and personnel management of staff they employ. Bodies are encouraged to be equal opportunities employers, and to pursue practices in the code of racial equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission. No central records are held of ethnic monitoring and equal opportunities exercises carried out by these bodies.

Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealfh Affairs in which of the grades DS 6 to 7 each of the people from ethnic minorities are employed.

Mrs. Chalker

To provide this information would break the code of practice agreecl with the Council of Civil Service Unions about the confidentiality of ethnic origin information, as it might lead to indentification of individual officers.

Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in which grade the person from ethnic minorities in grades DS 1 to 5 is employed.

Mrs. Chalker

To provide the information requested would normally breach the code of practice agreed with the Council of Civil Service Unions about the confidentiality of ethnic origin information on staff in post, as it could lead to identification of individual officers.

I regret to add that in this case the officer in question has died since the compilation of the statistics included in the answer my hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary gave the hon. and learned Gentleman on 22 June.