Whitehall accused of ‘fiddling’ ethnic worker statistics

Civil
servants have been accused of fiddling statistics on the number of blacks and
Asians working for the Government to meet targets.

The
Daily Mirror said while Whitehall claims the percentage of ethnic minorities
employed in senior positions has improved, the number has actually dropped.

The
paper said that, last year, 82 blacks and Asians – just 2.4 per cent of the
workforce – held top jobs in government. This year there are 80, but the
percentage has risen to three per cent.

The
Mirror said the numbers have been artificially boosted by the third of
highly-paid civil servants who did not complete ethnicity questionnaires – and
so were not counted.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Name

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

The
Government has wants 3.2 per cent of senior Whitehall jobs to be filled by
ethnic minorities by 2005.

By Quentin Reade