To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many and what percentage of employees in his private office are (a) of Asian origin and (b) of Afro-Caribbean origin. [8964]

Data on the ethnic origin of civilian staff are collected on a self declaration, confidential basis. Under my Department's code of practice on ethnicity data relating to civilian staff, we do not give information if numbers in statistical summaries are so small that it would be easy to identify the individualoncerned.The number of staff in private office who have declared themselves as of Asian origin is fewer than five and is not therefore given. The number of staff who have declared themselves as of Afro-Caribbean origin is five which is 10 per cent. of the current total numbers of civilian and service staff.