§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what steps he has taken to recruit women, members of ethnic minorities and disabled people, respectively, in top grades of employment at the Duchy of Lancaster and at the Office of Public Service and Science.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe Duchy of Lancaster is an equal opportunities employer. Appointments are made on grounds of merit and of suitability for the post, regardless of an individual's sex or race. There are currently no members of ethnic minorities or disabled people holding senior positions. The Duchy has employed a disabled senior grade in the past.
Recruits to the senior grades of the civil service, as to any grade in the civil service, are selected on merit on the basis of fair and open competition, unless one of the exceptions permitted under the Civil Service Order in Council 1991 applies. Various steps have been taken by the Civil Service Commissioners to aid recruitment from all sectors of the community, including:
- extending links with institutions of higher education;
- equal opportunities training for all those involved in selection;
- using validated selection procedures.
The Office of Public Service and Science is part of the Cabinet Office, which has signed up domestically to Opportunity 2000, and is working towards achieving the civil servicewide benchmark of increasing the proportion of women in the top three grades to 15 per cent. or more by the year 2000. The Department continually seeks to encourage the employment of people from the ethnic minorities and those with disabilities.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster when the Duchy of Lancaster and the Office of Public Service and Science last conducted surveys of(a) ethnic origins and (b) the number of women among their employees; when they next plan to do so; and whether he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe Duchy of Lancaster employs only 37 people. Consequently, it is not necessary to ask employees to declare their ethnic origins, nor to conduct surveys of the number of women employees.
The Office of Public Service and Science is part of the Cabinet Office. A survey of the origins of all non-industrial civil servants was completed in 1988. The Cabinet Office introduced a computerised personnel database in 1991. All staff were given the opportunity to update their own entries, which include sections on ethnic origins. There are no firm plans to conduct further surveys. The sex of employees is identified in staff records.
§ Mr. JannerTo ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how many and what percentage of officers in each grade from 1 to 7 and overall in the Duchy of Lancaster and in the Office of Public Service and Science are(a) women, (b) from ethnic minorities and (c) disabled people.
§ Mr. WaldegraveThe Duchy employs a total of 37 people, of whom 15–41 per cent.—are women. Of the 37 employees one is registered as a disabled person.
534WThe Office of Public Service and Science forms part of the Cabinet Office. The figures for women employed in the Cabinet Office, including its executive agencies, are as follows:
Grade (and) equivalents) Women Total Per cent. Women 1 0 5 0 2 2 8 25 3 1 25 4 4 0 3 0 5 16 41 39 6 19 45 42 7 63 264 24 Overall 1,330 2,634 50 The ethnic monitoring programme was carried out on a voluntary basis and did not extend to the Cabinet Office's agencies. Of those who responded, 62 people—2.3 per cent. of the total—chose to register as non-white. One of these people is at grade 7 level.
The Cabinet Office's figures on staff with disabilities include only those who have chosen to register as disabled. Twenty-eight people—1 per cent. of the total—are so registered. None is at grade 7 level or above. The Cabinet Office employs other staff with disabilities who have chosen not to register.