§ Mr. Andrew TurnerTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what evaluation he has made of the quality of the consultation by the CRE on the draft code of practice on the duty to promote racial equality; how many consultees in each category responded; and what proportion they represented of all consultees. [53465]
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§ Angela Eagle[holding answer 30 April 2002]: The Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) issued about 45,000 consultation packs to all listed public authorities and a range of voluntary sector organisations for information. The consultation pack was accompanied by a consultation feedback questionnaire which could be returned both via surface mail or completed on-line.
We are aware that of the 8,000 packs sent to parish councils, at least 27 were received only shortly before or even after the end of the consultation period. This was unacceptable. All parish councils who contacted the CRE to complain were given a two week extension and could respond until 15 March 2002.
The CRE received 974 responses to the consultation questionnaire including a number of collated responses from representative bodies and Government Departments. 87 parish councils responded.
In terms of clarity 85.6 per cent. of respondents found the draft statutory code mainly or completely clear. 82.8 per cent. of respondents found the draft code fairly or very easy to understand and 77.4 per cent. of respondents found the draft code either very or fairly easy to follow.
A range of promotional and consultative conferences with public and voluntary sector organisations complemented the written consultation exercise. The conferences and seminars were favourably received and were used to both inform the public sector of the new duty and to receive feedback and clarify issues raised in the consultation pack.
The following is the breakdown of the categories of responses to the consultation exercise.
Categories by sector Number of responses Percentage Central Government 15 1.5 Local government1 218 22.4 Health 55 5.6 Police/criminal justice 24 2.5 Schools 403 41.4 Further/higher education 70 7.2 Non-departmental public bodies 27 2.8 Voluntary sector 18 1.8 Trade unions 8 0.8 Other 23 2.4 Unclassified 113 11.6 Total respondents 974 100 1 Includes parish councils