Departmental Staff

HC Deb 13 May 2004 vol 421 cc516-7W

Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what percentage of policy entrants to his Department in each of the last five years attended public or independent schools. [172116]

Mr. Mike O'Brien

The information requested is in the following table.

Policy entrants
	Percentage from independent schools
1999	60
2000	64
2001	48
2002	24
2003	37

The recruitment section records school information as "independent" (which includes public schools) or "comprehensive".

Mr. McNamara

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs who the members of the Departmental Board are, broken down by(a) gender, (b) race or ethnicity, (c) whether they attended public or independent school and (d) whether they attended Oxford University or Cambridge University; and how long each has been in post. [172117]

Mr. Straw

The Data Protection Act prevents us from providing information about the ethnicity or race of individuals. The members of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Board, and the background information requested, as published in Who's Who, is as followsSir Michael Jay—Sir Michael has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Oxford and London Universities, and Winchester College. Sir Stephen Brown—Sir Stephen has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Sussex University, the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and Leeds Grammar School. John Sawers— John Sawers has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Nottingham University, and Beechen Cliff School, Bath. Kim Darroch—Kim Darroch has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Durham University, and Abingdon School. Martin Donnelly—Martin Donnelly has been in his current post for two months. He was educated at Oxford University and Saint Ignatius College. William Ehrman—William Ehrman has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Cambridge University, and Eton. Richard Stagg—Richard Stagg has been in his current post for one year. He was educated at Oxford University, and Winchester College. David Warren—David Warren has been in his current post for three months. He was educated at Oxford University, and Epsom College. Simon Fraser—Simon Fraser has been in his current post for two years. He was educated at Cambridge University, and St. Paul's School. Simon Gass—Simon Gass has been in his current post for three years. He was educated at Reading University, and Eltham College.

The Board also has two non-executive members, Allan Gormly, Chairman of BPB Industries, and Lucy Neville-Rolfe, Director of Corporate Affairs, Tesco plc.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office needs to be, and to be seen to be, representative of the diverse UK population as a whole; we are committed to achieving this and now have 21 female and two minority ethnic heads of posts. But we are aware that we have some way to go.