To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister to detail the progress being made by Executive Departments to encourage a more diverse range of applicants for public appointments.

Since the Commissioner for Public Appointments published his report on diversity and under-representation in public appointments in January 2014, extensive work has been taken forward by OFMDFM, the cross-Departmental Public Appointments Forum, and by the NI Statistics and Research Agency in response to the issues raised in this report. This has included outreach measures and liaison with key stakeholders across a large range of under-represented groups, in order to explain the public appointments process and to encourage a wider spectrum of applications.

New monitoring forms have been developed to capture detailed information on both applicants and appointees, which will improve the information base and ensure that outreach and awareness-raising can be targeted appropriately.

Since March 2015, all public appointment vacancies across government are now advertised on NI Direct, the official website for government services. Over the coming months, this will allow a central, consistent approach to be taken to disseminating knowledge of public appointment opportunities to as wide an audience as possible.