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