Equality watchdog urged to address Protestant workplace underrepresentation

TUV leader Jim Allister claims there is an apparent reluctance on the part of the commission to “face up” to the unrepresentative make up of the Public Prosecution Service (PPSNI) prosecutors’ pool.

Figures obtained by Mr Allister, and published by the News Letter yesterday, show that only 50 of the 169 PPSNI permanent and temporary PPS prosecutors have a Protestant background. Fifty are Protestant, 110 Catholic and nine ‘not determined’.

All PPSNI recruitment competitions are managed by Northern Ireland Civil Service HR, with appointments made “on the basis of merit through fair and open competition,” the PPS said earlier this week.

In response to Mr Allister’s concerns, the ECNI initially told the News Letter it would “discuss this information” with the NICS during it three-yearly review process, however, the TUV leader said such a “bland” statement suggested a lack of concern.

“There is an onus on the Equality Commission to take this matter seriously,” Mr Allister said.

“Though the Equality Commission has now undertaken to me to specifically direct the attention of NICS (Civil Service) to the situation in the PPS and to report back to me, I am conscious that in the past it has had no difficulty issuing statements, without prompting, on what it described as ‘key inequities in employment.’

“It has highlighted the employment gap for people with disabilities, women, single parents, Irish travellers, young people, older people and migrant workers among others. Yet there appears to be a reluctance on the part of the commission to face up to the issue of Protestant underrepresentation in the PPS even when the figures are stark. To respond with a bland statement which expresses no concern about the issue is disappointing to say the least.”

Mr Allister added: “As I said when I made the figures public, if the figures were reversed with such gross underrepresentation of the Roman Catholic community I have no doubt that the commission would be shouting from the rooftops.

“As the commission itself says when a problem is identified is a workforce affirmative action should be taken to ensure the workforce ‘broadly reflects the composition of the population from which it is drawn’. That manifestly isn’t the case with the PPS where Roman Catholics outnumber Protestants by a ratio of two to one.”

Mr Allister went on to say: “There is a perception within the unionist community that ‘equality’ only applies when it comes to issues of perceived concern within nationalism. Here is a concrete example which would allow the commission to show that equality applies to all sides of the community. I hope they will consider the matter more seriously than their initial response suggests.”

An ECNI spokesperson said they have written to the NI Civil Service “and will discuss the issue raised as part of the Article 55 review process”.

Earlier this week, Director of Public Prosecutions Stephen Herron said: “We take our responsibilities in providing a wholly impartial and high quality prosecution service to the people of Northern Ireland very seriously. Every prosecution decision is taken objectively by carefully analysing the available evidence and applying the Test for Prosecution as set out in the Code for Prosecutors.

“We understand that cross community confidence is essential to the administration of justice and we work hard to ensure this public confidence is maintained by being as open and transparent as possible in our decision making.”

Mr Herron added: “I am therefore encouraged that the latest independent Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey showed that public confidence in us has risen in the past year, with more than three quarters of respondents (76.6%) having confidence that we provide a fair and impartial prosecution service to the people of Northern Ireland.

“It is also reassuring that this broad public support is reflected when the survey looked at the religious background breakdown of those questioned.”