To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what has been the cost to the Exchequer of tax avoidance schemes involving the holding shares in offshore trusts in which Government Ministers are beneficiaries since 1 May. [9796]
| Pay bands | Asian | Afro-Caribbean | |||
| Number | Percentage of total number of staff in those pay bands | Number | Percentage of total number of staff in those pay bands | Total numbers of staff | |
| Equivalent FCO | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 191 |
| Senior management structure pay bands 1–7 | |||||
| Equivalent FCO | 15 | 3.2 | 6 | 1.3 | 468 |
| DS6/SEO-DS5S/HCS6 | |||||
| Equivalent FCO | 50 | 7.8 | 39 | 6.1 | 641 |
| AA-DS7/HEO | |||||
| Totals | 65 | 5 | 45 | 3.4 | 1,300 |
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many and what percentage of employees in his private office are (a) of Asian origin and (b) of Afro-Caribbean origin. [8955]
Staff within this Department are not obliged to report their ethnic origins. A voluntary staff survey into ethnic origins was carried out in 1989 and 89 per cent. of staff responded. We have since invited all new entrants to complete the questionnaire. Staff are assured that the information gathered from their responses to the survey will be used for statistical purposes only.Staff working in my right hon. Friend the Foreign Secretary's office have been asked if they would be prepared to have the results of their own returns to the
[holding answer 21 July 1997]: I do not accept the premise of the hon. Member's question. Comprehensive information about the beneficiaries of offshore trusts is not held, nor required in all cases, by the Inland Revenue.