To ask the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister what is its understanding of the terms 'Protestant community' and 'Catholic community', in the context of Fair Employment Monitoring, where they are used in a mutually exclusive way.

Monitoring under the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998 enables employers to determine whether those who belong to either the Protestant or Roman Catholic community enjoy fair participation in the workforce and is an essential step in implementing equal opportunities practices.

The Fair Employment (Monitoring) Regulations (NI) 1999 require employers to determine the community background of their employees by reference to their answer to a direct question. This requires the employee or applicant to state in writing whether they belong to the Protestant or Roman Catholic community or belong to neither.

Where persons state they belong to neither community, employers may make a determination of community background for monitoring purposes only. The Regulations set out a number of ways in which community background can be established. This entails consideration of any relevant information which employees or applicants have provided, in writing, about themselves. If the information tends to show that they have a connection with both communities, they are treated as belonging to the community with which, in general, it tends to show they have the stronger connection. Where neither method ascertains the community background, the employer shall treat a person as if the community background to which they belong cannot be determined.