HC Deb 28 January 2002 vol 379 cc90-1W
Annabelle Ewing

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister how many Civil Service staff are on loan from each of the devolved Administrations to UK Government Departments, broken down by UK Government Departments; and what percentage of civil service staff the number on loan represents per the total number of civil servants for each devolved Administration. [29512]

Mr. Leslie

The information for the Scottish Executive is given in the table. The National Assembly for Wales has five staff currently on loan, all to the Cabinet Office; this is 0.1 per cent. of the total of 3,500 staff. Comparable figures for the Northern Ireland civil service are not available except at disproportionate cost.

Scottish Executive
Department Staff on loan at 21 January 2002 Percentage
Cabinet Office 5 0.0
Department of Health (Food Standards Agency) 59 0.5
Department of Trade and Industry 1 0.0
Foreign and Commonwealth Office 6 0.1
Forestry Commission 2 0.0
HM Treasury 5 0.0
Home Office 367 3.2
Office of Fair Trading 1 0.0
Oftel 1 0.0
Prime Minister's Office 1 0.0
Scotland Office 109 1.0
Total staff on loan 557 4.9
Total staff in post 11,430 100.0

Dr. Kumar

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister if he will make a statement on the progress which has been made in delivering the strategy to increase the numbers of(a) women and (b) ethnic minorities in Whitehall's senior civil service grades. [27851]

Mr. Leslie

The latest figures for April 2001 show that:

  • 24.2 per cent. of the senior civil service are women, up from 17.8 per cent. in 1998. The target for 2004–05 is 35 per cent.
  • 20.2 per cent. of those in the top 600 posts are women, up from 12.7 per cent. in 1998. The target for 2004–05 is 25 per cent.
  • 2.4 per cent. of staff at senior civil service level are from a minority ethnic background, up rom 1.6 per cent. in 1998. The target for 2004–05 is 3.2 per cent.

Progress is being made in other areas. For example the number of successful candidates from minority ethnic backgrounds in the fast stream scheme has doubled from 3.4 per cent. in 1998 to 6.8 per cent. in 2000.