HC Deb 21 June 1988 vol 135 cc549-50W
Mr. Janner

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps have been taken to ensure that the monitoring system developed for his Department complies with the codes of the Commission for Racial Equality and of the Equal Opportunities Commission, respectively.

Mr. Stanley

The remits of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission for Great Britain do not extend to Northern Ireland. However, the equal opportunities monitoring system set up by the Northern Ireland Civil Service was developed in

1982–83 1983–84 1984–85 1985–86 1986–87 1987–88 1988–89
Northern Ireland Office
Civil servants (thousands at 1 April each year)1 4.2 4.3 4.3 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.6
Total costs (£ million)3 70.5 76.6 80.3 89.5 98.1 109.1 120.2
Northern Ireland Departments
Civil servants (thousands at 1 April each year)2 26.3 26.7 25.9 25.9 26.3 26.7 26.8
Total costs (£ million)3 190.0 205.4 213.8 229.1 249.9 267.5 282.0
1 Includes industrial and non-industrial civil servants, casual staff, prison discipline staff and civilian search unit staff. Civil servants seconded to the Police Authority for Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland Probation Board are not included.
2 Includes industrial and non-industrial civil servants and casual staff of Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration and Northern Ireland Commission for Complaints, the Northern Ireland Assembly and the former Northern Ireland Exchequer and Audit Department (now the Northern Ireland Audit Office).
3 Total costs consist of pay costs and personnel overheads.

full consultation with, and its introduction was welcomed by, the Fair Employment Agency and the Equal Opportunities Commission for Northern Ireland.

As far as the Home Civil Service element of the Northern Ireland Office is concerned, the monitoring system developed complies with the codes of the Commission for Racial Equality and the Equal Opportunities Commission so far as is practicable with a group of only some 190 civil servants.

A survey to provide information on the ethnic origin of staff in the NIO was considered as part of a phased programme of ethnic surveys across the Civil Service, and the monitoring of recruits has continued since then. The Department also participates in annual surveys conducted across the Civil Service relating to the employment of women and of the disabled.