HC Deb 19 April 1999 vol 329 cc407-8W
Mr. Efford

To ask the hon. Member for Middlesbrough (Mr. Bell), representing the Church Commissioners, what assessment he has made of the implications for the Commissioners of the Macpherson inquiry recommendations; and if he will make a statement. [80536]

Mr. Stuart Bell

Ensuring equal opportunity and the demonstration of fairness in all aspects of conduct within the Commissioners' office is something the Commissioners and indeed all the other central Church institutions take extremely seriously.

The Commissioners have followed equal opportunity practice in their recruitment and promotion procedures for many years and equal opportunities training for those operating these areas has been provided. Human resources departments across the national Church institutions were merged in 1998 in anticipation of the creation of the Archbishops' Council from January 1999. Equal opportunities awareness training has been offered to all of the central Church institutions' staff and this year we introduced a new Equal Opportunities Policy.

The Policy states our belief that we benefit from a workforce drawn from a wide cross-section of the community and confirms our commitment to developing and supporting all staff. Particularly relevant to the question is the definition of and procedure for dealing with racial harassment; recruitment and selection procedures including advertisement in publications with a predominantly ethnic readership where those groups are under-represented in our workforce; and training in equal opportunity awareness.