§ Mr. VazTo ask the Prime Minister if he will provide a breakdown, in numerical and percentage terms, of the ethnic origin at 1 March of(a) his private office, (b) Government special advisers, (c) the No. 10 Policy Unit and (d) No. 10 Downing Street staff in total. [78505]
§ The Prime MinisterThe Government, with the Civil Service unions, recently launched a Joint Charter to address under-representation of ethnic minorities at senior levels. The Government are also setting targets for ethnic minorities in the Senior Civil Service and below.
239WInformation on the ethnic origin of civil servants is collected on a voluntary basis, using confidential questionnaires. The number and percentage of ethnic minority staff in the private office, Government special advisers and for all staff at No. 10 Downing Street are set out in the table. I answered on 22 February 1999, Official Report, column 39, for Special Advisers across Government.
Ethnic origin of No. 10 staff and special advisers Total Ethnic Minority Ethnic Minority Percentage Private Office 9 — — Policy Unit 18 1— 1— All Downing Street Staff 124 7 5.6 Government Special Advisers 18 1— 1— 1 To protect the privacy of individual staff, numbers relating to fewer than five people are not disclosed