§ Mr. DonohoeTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what measures her Department has implemented during the last 12 months to encourage the promotion of women into senior positions with his Department and its executive agencies; and what progress her Department has made in encouraging the promotion of women over the last five years. [31544]
§ Mr. HanleyWe have an action programme in place to ensure equality of access to recruitment, training, career development and promotion for all women. Graduate recruitment into the fast stream is particularly targeted to help redress the under-representation of women at senior levels. The policy is seeing results—in 1995, 57 per cent. of the fast stream intake were women. We encourage the retention of women through a number of initiatives including flexible/part-time work, generous career breaks, subsidised nursery facilities and holiday play schemes for school children. We have been an active member of the Opportunity 2000 campaign since 1992.
We are seeing a steady increase in the percentage of women at all levels in the FCO. The number of women at DS5—top level of middle management—has increased from 9.6 per cent. in 1991 to 13.7 per cent. in 1995. The number of women in the top three grades of the DS has increased by 1 per cent. in 1995 to 3.7 per cent. in 1991, a level that has been maintained to date. There are now eight female ambassadors/heads of mission compared to two in 1991.
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