§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to establish an Equality Unit within the Northern Ireland Office. [117356]
§ Mr. Mandelson[holding answer 3 April 2000]: The Office of the First and Deputy First Minister has an Equality Unit which continues to advise the Government on equality issues.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to utilise contract compliance and public procurement as a mechanism for promoting greater employment equality. [117354]
§ Mr. Ingram[holding answer 3 April 2000]: Public contracts already require that contractors comply with Northern Ireland and anti-discrimination law on religious and political opinion, sex, race and disability. There are additional provisions under the Fair Employment and Treatment (Northern Ireland) Order 1998 whereby individual employers can be excluded from Government contracts if they have not adhered to specified requirements of fair employment legislation. There are no further plans at this time to extend these requirements.
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§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what progress has been made in reducing community differentials in unemployment; what targets he has set for reducing community differentials; and what initiatives are planned to remedy community differentials. [117351]
§ Mr. George Howarth[holding answer 3 April 2000]: The Government are committed to reducing unemployment in Northern Ireland and regard continuing differentials between Catholics and Protestants in unemployment as unacceptable. The most recent Labour Force Survey data for 1998 indicate that the ratio of the Catholic unemployment rate to the Protestant rate is 1.9 (2.3 for males and 1.4 for females). The Government are addressing unemployment and continuing differentials through:
the New Deal;recent legislation changes to facilitate employers in recruiting the unemployed and to permit religion specific training; andthe new Targeting Social Need policy.The Equality Commission will shortly consult on its plans to establish benchmarks and monitoring systems to measure future reductions in community differentials among the unemployed.
§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what plans he has to monitor the effectiveness of the New Deal programme in Northern Ireland in terms of religious affiliation. [117358]
§ Mr. Ingram[holding answer 3 April 2000]: Participation in New Deal is monitored in terms of community background/religious affiliation by the Department of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment. Statistics on the numbers of Catholic and Protestant participants on the New Deals for Unemployed People, and their progress through the programme, have been published regularly by the Department. These statistics are also regularly reviewed by the Training and Employment Agency Board's Equality Sub-Group.
Specific Equality and New Targeting Social Needs criteria, including consideration of the impact of New Deal on Protestants and Catholics, have also been built into the various projects covering the evaluation of New Deal which is currently under way. This will ensure that reliable conclusions can be drawn about the impact of the programme on both the Protestant and Catholic communities.