§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many and what percentage of officers in grades 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, respectively, and overall in his Department are(a) women and (b) members of ethnic minorities.
§ Mr. CopeThe table below gives the information requested in respect of women in the Employment Department group in the grades specified. Overall, 34,485 (66.6 per cent.) out of the group's 51,751 administrative staff are women.
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Grade Total staff in grade Number of women in grade Percentage women G1 2 0 0.0 G2 5 0 0.0 G3 27 3 11.1 closing; at the end of March 1988 employment service job clubs had a job entry rate of 57 per cent. and external job clubs 50 per cent. In some employment service areas external job clubs are now performing as well as or better than their employment service counterparts. A number of initiatives, such as improved job club leader training, are in progress which should further improve performance.
External job clubs already provide valuable help to long term unemployed people and statistics suggest they are capable of performing broadly as well as those directly run by the employment service.
§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish details of the destinations of job club participants since the start of the initiative to the most recent date, by year, for the north-west region and for the United Kingdom as a whole.
§ Mr. Lee[holding answer 17 April 1989]: Details of the destinations of job club participants since the year to 31 March 1987 are given in the table. Comparable earlier statistics are not available.
Grade Total staff in grade Number of women in grade Percentage women G4 12 0 0.0 G5 111 17 15.3 G6 120 14 11.7 G7 785 124 15.8 In common with the rest of the Civil Service, the Employment Department group has carried out surveys of the ethnic origin of its staff. The surveys were undertaken on the basis of voluntary self classification. Results for 1 April 1989 show:
Grade Total respondents Ethnic minority respondents Percentage Grades 1–6 469 3 0.6 Grade 7 1,088 9 0.8 All staff 54,077 2,501 4.6 A code of practice on the use of ethnic data exists to safeguard the confidentiality of individuals who have responded to the survey. For this reason we have not provided figures by individual grades for grades 1 to 6.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment when his Department last conducted a survey of the ethnic origin of its employees; when it next plans to do so; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CopeThe first survey of ethnic origin of staff took place in 1986 and was undertaken on the basis of voluntary self classification. A further inquiry was sent to all staff for 215W whom the information was not held in November 1988. As a result we now know the ethnic origin of 91.5 per cent. of Employment Department group staff. My Department is now considering whether further action is required.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what steps he has taken to recruit members of ethnic minorities in top grades of employment at his Department.
§ Mr. CopeRecruitment at grade 7 level and above is undertaken by the Civil Service Commission on behalf of my Department. Members of Employment Department group staff from ethnic minority backgrounds are participating in a series of newspaper advertisements being run by the commission to encourage more people from ethnic minorities to apply for professional posts. My Department is currently examining its effectiveness in selecting graduates with ethnic minority backgrounds, both externally and from our own staff for the "fast stream" schemes of management trainee and administration trainee/higher executive officer (development).
§ Mr. LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what new measures the Training Agency has undertaken in response to the report on racial inequality published in 1988 by the youth employment and training resource unit entitled "The Firms That Like to Say No".
§ Mr. Cope[holding answer 17 April 1989]: This report presents a selective and biased account of the
Table 1 Details of entrants to employment training to end February 1989 Percentage Entrants numbers Men Women Ethnic origin1 PWD2 Region 1 2 3 4 5 South East 11,891 65 35 90 2 2 3 3 15 London 18,193 59 41 50 25 12 7 6 10 South West 11,081 68 32 93 2 1 2 2 16 West Midlands 22,564 69 31 79 9 8 2 2 12 East Midlands and Eastern 15,984 73 27 87 4 6 1 2 15 Yorkshire and Humberside 28,899 75 25 90 2 5 1 2 11 North West 30,202 72 28 92 2 3 1 2 12 Northern 20,473 75 25 96 1 ֵ 1 2 9 Wales 14,627 71 29 94 1 1 1 3 12 Scotland 22,512 73 27 96 ֵ 1 1 2 11 1. Ethnic groups: 1. White. 2. Black/African/Caribbean descent. 3. Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan descent. 4. None of these. 5. Prefer not to say. 2 PWD—People with disabilities—People with a long-term health problem or disability which affects the work they can do. ֵ—Less than 0.5 per cent.
§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish the most recent scheme by scheme details of the numbers of entrants and leavers, excluding community programme transfers, to employment training by sex, ethnic origin and disability in the Greater Manchester area.
§ Mr. Nicholls[holding answer 17 April 1989]: The information is not available in the form requested. Figures for entrants for the Greater Manchester area are provided in the following table. Information for these entrants who have now left employment training will be available in the summer.
216Wrepresentation of ethnic minority young people within YTS, and calls for no specific response. The Training Agency is, however, continuing its efforts to increase the proportion of ethnic minority trainees in employer-led YTS schemes. It is currently preparing improved marketing materials and new good-practice guidelines for managing agents, and is exploring with employer interests ways in which employers may improve and encourage access to training and employment opportunities for ethnic minority young people. A video is also in production to market YTS to ethnic minority young people.
§ Mr. Tony LloydTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish details in for the nine standard economic regions, of the total numbers of entrants and leavers, excluding community programme transfers, to employment training by sex, ethnic origin and disability.
§ Mr. Nicholls[holding answer 17 April 1989]The information is not available in the precise form requested. Information is only available for entrants for the eight Training Agency regions in England and for Scotland and Wales. The information for entrants to employment training to the end of February 1989 is given in table 1. The number of these entrants who have left employment training is currently only available for Great Britain as a whole and is estimated to be 50,000.
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Table 1 Details of entrants to employment training to end February 1989 Percentage Greater Manchester Entrants Numbers 11,208 Men 72 Women 28 Ethnic groups White 88 Black/African/Caribbean descent 4 Indian/Pakistani/Bangladeshi/Sri Lankan descent 4 None of these 2 Prefer not to say 2 PWD—People with disabilities1 2—
1 People with a long-term health problem or disability which affects the work they can do. 2 Information not available for Greater Manchester. Proportion PWD for North West region is 12 per cent.