Public Servant Lifestyle

Action to promote diversity and race equality must remain a top priority for the Home Office and its agencies, says Home Office Minister Fiona Mactaggart. This affirmation follows the publication of two reports showing the progress being made by the Home Office and its agencies in promoting diversity and race equality among its staff.

The key findings of one of these reports - the 2003 annual report on the Home Secretary’s Race Equality Employment Targets - are:

The police, prison and probation services all increased the proportion of minority ethnic staff, as did the Immigration Service .

The Home Office itself has exceeded its 2004 target of 25% representation of minority ethnic staff, with the current total standing at 31.1%.

In the Immigration & Nationality Directorate, of the candidates for recruitment who declared their ethnicity, 33% of successful candidates were from ethnic minority groups.

The percentage of minority ethnic staff at senior civil servant level is 3.8 per cent, exceeding the target set for 2009, and meeting the Cabinet Office’s target.

The key findings of the 2002-3 Employment Monitoring report under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 are:

Of the 76% of Home Office staff covered by the survey, 19% were from ethnic minorities. Of the 48% of IND staff covered by the survey, 27% were from minority ethnic groups.

In the Home Office, the proportion of staff leaving is comparable between white and minority ethnic staff (14% and 13% respectively).

Fiona Mactaggart said: "There are encouraging signs that the Home Office and its agencies are making progress on promoting diversity and race equality. There has been steady progress in achieving and in some cases exceeding the Home Secretary’s employment targets, set in 1999.

"But there is so much more to do, as events in the past year have shown. We will maintain our efforts to achieve the targets. By better representing the communities we serve, we will be better able to win their trust.

"We also acknowledge the significant challenges the Home Office and its agencies face, and we are acting on them. There is a lot more work to be done across the board. In particular, there will be valuable collaboration between the Commission for Racial Equality (CRE) and the police service in the light of the Secret Policeman documentary; and the CRE and the Prison Service.

"We are taking action to further improve our knowledge of the experience of ethnic minority staff in the Home Office and IND. Internally, forthcoming Home Office diversity initiatives will address areas of concern that have been identified, including career progression and appraisal of ethnic minority staff."

The Annual Report on the Home Secretary’s Race Equality Employment Targets 2003 is available here.

The 2002-3 Employment Monitoring report under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 is available here.

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