§ Mr. SarwarTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs if he will make a statement on the Community Forums held by his Department to encourage wider ethnic diversity in the Diplomatic Service. [129929]
§ Mr. HainI am grateful to my hon. Friend for hosting the successful Community Forum which the Department recently organised in Glasgow. Community Forums enable the Department to reach out to communities that might otherwise not have considered the Foreign Office as a career for their young people. The Minister of State, my hon. Friend the Member for Leeds, West (Mr. Battle) hosted a Forum in Leeds yesterday. I am delighted that the Forums, together with other initiatives taken by the Department and which we continue to pursue, have led to a significant increase in the number of applications from members of minority ethnic communities.