To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission, what percentage of the House’s senior staff are women; and if he will make a statement. (81507)

As at 28 June 2006, 28.9 per cent. of staff in the Senior Commons Structure pay bands were women. This compares with some 48 per cent. for the House service overall. The proportion of women at senior levels is expected to continue to grow in the coming years.

To ask the hon. Member for North Devon, representing the House of Commons Commission what steps the Commission is taking to improve the representation of ethnic minority communities in the House's senior staff; and if he will make a statement. (81508)

The House's diversity forum action plan, available on the parliamentary intranet, has a wide range of actions aimed at all aspects of the diversity agenda. Representation of under-represented groups has improved in recent years as a result of measures to remove potential bias from recruitment and internal career progression arrangements, but the effects will inevitably take some time to feed through fully to senior levels.