Question to the Home Office:
To ask the right hon. Member for Carshalton and Wallington, representing the House of Commons Commission, what proportion of apprentices employed by the House of Commons are from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The House launched the first apprenticeship scheme in 2012. Since then 10 apprentices have been employed per year. We have extended this to 12 apprentices for 2019.
Apprentices are asked to submit diversity data. This does not include if they consider themselves to be from a disadvantaged background. Therefore, the House does not hold this information. We work closely with both our providers and the House of Commons recruitment team to ensure vacancies are published to as broad an audience as possible.
As it would be possible to identify the ethnicity of some of the apprentices – the intake comprising too few individuals to ensure confidentiality – we are unable to answer the question as to what proportion of apprentices currently employed by the House of Commons are from minority ethnic backgrounds.