§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he has taken to remedy past inequalities in employment practices in his Department, in compliance with the codes of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission, respectively.
§ Mr. HurdWe use data collected on the ethnic origins and sex of staff to help identify disparities in recruitment and promotion. Steps taken to promote greater equality include the use of part-time work, job sharing, flexible working hours, and arrangements for special leave to 439W make it easier for those with domestic responsibilities to continue to work; attendance by a number of female staff at women's management development courses run by the civil service college; contacts with ethnic minority communities; and the placing of advertisements in the ethnic and local press.
All our management training courses, and those for members of recruitment and promotion boards, address equal opportunities and we are currently exploring, with OMCS, what further contribution training might make to progress in this area.