§ Sandra GidleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what new data 249W series, separated by (a) gender, (b) race, (c) disability and (d) age have been commissioned by her Department since it was created. [66730]
§ Mr. Morley[holding answer 4 July 2002]: The June Agricultural Census collects data on employment in agriculture and horticulture broken down by gender, and the Department also runs a survey which collects information on the earnings of these workers by gender. However, no new questions were introduced with the creation of DEFRA. In 2003 a labour survey will be conducted as part of the EC farm structure surveys. This will ask questions broken down by age and gender.
DEFRA's draft Equality Scheme, required under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act, sets out the actions required to meet the duty and over time it is possible that this will lead to the commissioning of new data series on ethnicity if this is identified as being necessary.
Internally, data is collected on gender, disability, age and race. Personnel procedures which may have an impact on applicants and staff are monitored, broken down by gender race and disability and sometimes also by age. A new monitoring programme is being finalised which will take account of the requirements of the Race Relations (Amendment) Act and, as far as possible, forthcoming legislation on sexual orientation, religion and age.