§ Mr. VazTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many and what percentage of employees in his private office are(a) of Asian origin and (b) of Afro-Caribbean origin. [8949]
§ Mr. StrawA voluntary self-classification system is used to record the ethnic origin of staff in the Home Office. Of the staff serving in the Home Office ministerial secretariat on 6 July 1997(a) 7.4 per cent. had classified themselves as being of Asian origin and (b) 2.9 per cent. had classified themselves as being of Afro-Caribbean origin. The ministerial secretariat consists of staff serving all the Home Office Ministers and the permanent secretary. Given the small size of the ministerial secretariat, the information requested on numbers cannot be provided as this might result in the identification of individuals. This would be contrary to the Home Office code of practice on the use and disclosure of ethnic data, which has been agreed with the trade union side.
In connection with this question, I regret that some of the information provided in my reply to the hon. Member on 22 May 1997, Official Report, column 110, was incorrect in that the figures given were those for black staff and not for staff of Asian origin. The correct figures are as follows:
Grade level Asian staff Afro-caribbean staff Administrative Assistants 175 109 Administrative Officers 314 142 Executive Officers 175 67 Higher Executive Officers 17 14 Senior Executive Officer and above 11 7 Total 692 339