Adverts will urge women to take up quango jobs

Women and people from ethnic minorities are being sought by the Government to fill hundreds of jobs on quangos. Only a third of people serving on 1,000 boards of the non-governmental bodies are women, while just 4.4 per cent come from ethnic minorities.

During a Commons debate, Christopher Leslie, aCabinet Office minister, said that government advertising would help ensure that the membership of public bodies "increasingly reflects the regional breadth of all parts of the UK" and that boards and trusts were not dominated by any corner of the nation. "In the past, far too many public appointments were available only to those who knew where to look for them, or who knew the right people to talk to," he said.

Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesman, warned that the organisations had a "cosy" middle-class membership. "There's definitely a disengagement and a misunderstanding and the public don't seem ... to particularly want to get involved in the various organisations at a local level or indeed at a national level where they could have a direct say on how public money is actually spent."