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Northern Ireland Office

Answer

Mr. Robert McCartney: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many candidates applied, in May 1997, for promotion to Civil Service Grade 7, and if she will provide a breakdown of the successful candidates by their religious background. [55542] Mr. Paul Murphy: A competition for promotion to Administrative Grade 7 in the Northern Ireland Civil Service was launched in May 1997. The competition is a two-stage exercise with candidates deemed eligible at the end of Stage 1 to compete in individual Departmental competitions for promotion to Grade 7. A total of 414 candidates participated in the competition and of these, 97 were deemed eligible to participate in Stage 2 Departmental competitions. Up until 30 September 1998, a total of 53 candidates have been promoted to Administrative Grade 7 following departmental competitions. The competition will remain open until July 1999. The community backgrounds of those participating, those deemed eligible to participate in Stage 2 competitions and those successful in obtaining promotion to date are as follows: _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Community background Number participating in the Number eligible to participate Number successful to date (30 competition in stage 2 competitions September 1998) Protestant 265 54 28 Roman Catholic 134 42 25 Not determined 15 1 -- Totals 414 97 53 _________________________________________________________________________________________________.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

55542; 317 c910W

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Career development Religion Northern Ireland Civil Service

Contains statistics

Yes