HC Deb 20 May 1997 vol 294 cc23-4W
Mr. Vaz

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many civil servants at each grade within his Department were of Asian origin on 5 May. [237]

Mr. Spellar

The number of permanent civilian staff in my Department and its agencies who have recorded their ethnicity as being of Asian origin in the MOD's ethnic origin survey is shown in the table:

Permanent civilian staff of Asian origin by graded equivalence as at 1 April 1997
Number
Grade 1 to 5 6
Grade 6 4
Grade 7 41
SEO 73
HEO 101
EO 118
AO 165

Permanent civilian staff of Asian origin by graded equivalence as at 1 April 1997
Number
AA 142
Industrial 90
Total 740
Mr. Vaz

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what proposals he has to increase the number of employees from ethnic minorities within his Department. [238]

Mr. Spellar

As part of its overall commitment to equal opportunities my Department has in place a substantial range of measures aimed at increasing the proportion of civilian staff employed from ethnic minorities. These include: outreach work by recruitment staffs among the ethnic communities; contact with them through careers fairs and schools; targeted job advertising; the inclusion of welcoming statements in job adverts; ethnicity monitoring and numerical targets in the Departmental Management Plan. In addition, my Department has sponsored a number of Windsor Fellows in recent years and is a member of the "Race for. Opportunity" campaign. Future proposals for action in respect of civilian employees will emerge from work currently being undertaken to take forward the implementation of the recommendations of a recent study into MOD's ethnic minority employment initiatives.