asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department if he will make the gathering of information on ethnic origins compulsory, and publish the percentage of entrants to his Department who failed to respond to the ethnic origins questionnaire.
I would refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 24 March by my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister to her question on the compulsory provision of information about ethnic origin.
As I stated in my reply to the hon. Member on 9 March, of the 3,065 new entrants to the Home Office between 1 October 1985 and 25 February 1987, 1,191 (nearly 39 per cent.) had not returned a completed questionnaire on ethnic origin by the time the figures were collated. It is not possible to say how many have responded, or will respond, at a later date.