HC Deb 12 June 1996 vol 279 cc157-8W
Mr. Donohoe

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment 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. [31543]

Sir Paul Beresford

Specific action increasing opportunities for women over the last 12 months includes the issue of guidance to remind staff about the Department's policy on sexual harassment and their rights and responsibilities; detailed analysis of a new internal advertising scheme for job vacancies to ensure that it operates fairly; and the preparation of a leaflet on equal opportunities publicising the Department's policy. Items of particular relevance to women cover flexible working and coping with caring responsibilities; plans to reimburse additional expenses for the care of elderly and infirm dependents when the normal working routine is broken; and as a follow-up to a departmental review and staff attitude survey, a study is being undertaken to consider to what extent long hours working impacts on staff and how it might be reduced.

Most of the above initiatives were taken under the Department's action plan for women published in 1993. Many others have been in place since then or earlier. They include:

  1. (a) a range of equal opportunities training for staff including senior management and women-only developmental training;
  2. (b) flexible and part-time working arrangements;
  3. (c) career breaks with a keeping in touch scheme;
    4. 158
  4. (d) workplace nursery and holiday play scheme arrangements, and provision of reimbursement of additional child care costs incurred when normal working routines are broken;
  5. (e) raising awareness through membership of Business in the Community's Opportunity 2000 campaign and the Parents at Work organisation;
  6. (f) the appointment of equal opportunity liaison officers in each directorate to help promote equal opportunities in the workplace and reflect local needs;
  7. (g) ensuring that wherever possible a woman serves on promotion and selection panels and that these panels take account of equal opportunities issues;
  8. (h) monitoring success rate by gender applies to all stages of recruitment and promotion boards, annual performance and promotability markings, performance pay and bonuses, internal postings and part-time working. Any significant disparities between the success rates of men and women are investigated with a view to making improvements to procedures;

Progress on all equal opportunities measures is reported to the Department's management board annually and the results of the continuous monitoring are made available to all staff. The percentage of women in the Department has increased from 34 per cent. in 1991 to 42 per cent. in April 1996. Currently, 23 per cent. of staff in the top three grades are women exceeding the existing civil service-wide benchmark of 15 per cent.