§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what steps have been taken to increase the representation of Roman Catholics in the Senior Civil Service. [117355]
§ Mr. Ingram[holding answer 3 April 2000]: The Northern Ireland Civil Service has had a robust and proactive policy on equality of opportunity since 1984 and has consistently sought to tackle under-representation at all levels of the organisation through programmes of affirmative action. This has delivered significant improvement in the levels of representation of Roman Catholics throughout the workforce and both the extent of change and the measures taken have been reported in the public domain through the regular reports of the Service's Equal Opportunities Unit, copies of which are in the Library of the House.
518WUnder-representation of Roman Catholics among the most senior levels of the Service remains evident and is openly acknowledged. Past trends indicate that a significant contribution to changing the compositional profile among the Senior Civil Service (SCS) can be made by drawing upon the more representative pools of staff at the grade levels below the SCS.
Affirmative action measures to tackle under-representation of Roman Catholics, have been developed in close consultation with the former Fair Employment Commission, and continue to be developed in concert with the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland. Measures more specifically targeted at tackling under-representation among the SCS include setting goals and timetables in consultation with the former Fair Employment Commission which will be reviewed this year with the new Equality Commission, the dropping of seniority and grade level requirements as eligibility criterion in internal promotion competitions and more extensive use of open recruitment for SCS posts.