John McDonnell – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by John McDonnell on 2014-06-12.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department plans to take to improve equality monitoring of employment within the media industry; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Edward Vaizey

Promoting greater equality of opportunity in the workforce is a matter the Government takes seriously. The Government is actively engaging with leading organisations in the media industry who are working together through the Creative Diversity Network to help address the under-representation of ethnic minorities in that sector. The industry will outline the steps it intends to take at a roundtable event in early July. Equality data monitoring is among a number of issues that will be discussed. In addition, Ofcom has a number of duties relating to equality of opportunity, as set out in the Communications Act 2003. These include requiring all UK licensed radio and television broadcasters’ licences to have in place arrangements for promoting equal opportunities in employment on the basis of gender, race and disability, and to review those arrangements with regard to any relevant guidance published by Ofcom.