To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland in which perceived religious category the fair employment monitoring process of the Northern Ireland civil service places those applicants or employees who have attended integrated secondary schools. [37391]
The Northern Ireland civil service relies on the primary school attended for the longest period of time, "The First Schools Method", as its principal method of making a determination of the perceived religious category of an applicant or employee. Where use of the "Schools List" fails to produce a determination of Protestant or Roman Catholic the service then relies on information specified under the "Residuary Method" in the Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989 to make a determination, insofar as this is possible. Under the "Schools List" maintained by the Fair Employment Commission for the purposes of the regulations, integrated schools, whether primary or secondary, are among the schools which are unclassified for religious monitoring purposes.