Public Body Boards Next month we will be celebrating Black History Month, taking pride in the multi-ethnic society

in which we live. Our diversity is part of putting the great in Great Britain. What is very disappointing is that in October we will not be able to celebrate diversity on the boards running our public services; the situation there is actually getting worse, not better, under this government. Recently I asked Francis Maude, the minister for the Cabinet Office, in parliament to reveal the government's record for diversity on public boards, such as the NHS, police and Department for Education. The results were shocking. New figures show that just 59 people from an ethnic minority were appointed to public boards last year just 5.5% of total appointments compared to 7% in 2010. If the boards of public bodies and government departments were representative of UK, 14% of appointments would be from ethnic minority communities. The figures for the NHS and for chairs of public boards are a particular cause for concern. Of 39 chairs appointed or reappointed to NHS boards, none was from an ethnic minority. On NHS public bodies, the figure remained low at 4.6%. This is clearly not representative of the contribution and expertise of ethnic minorities in our health service and should be a wake-up call that something is wrong with the recruitment processes. The Tories' enthusiasm for scrapping performance targets included the cross-Whitehall target for diversity at the top of our public services. The targets were there for a reason: under-representation of ethnic minorities was not just an equality matter, but a matter of public concern. Public bodies help direct resources and make decisions about public services, and for the best decisions we need better representation at all levels in our public life. It is extremely disappointing to see representation of ethnic minorities decline on the boards of our public bodies under this government. The government needs to start valuing diversity on our public boards, and recognise the talents that greater diversity can add to management discussion and problem solving. I hope the government will urgently review its appointments process and outreach so that representation continues to move forwards, not backwards. Seema Malhotra is Labour MP for Feltham and Heston in west London