PM: Beat bias by taking names off job applications

FIRMS could be encouraged to remove candidates’ names from job applications to prevent discrimination, Theresa May said yesterday.

Asked if the Government could make ‘name blind’ applications compulsory, the Prime Minister suggested she would prefer companies to consider adopting the measure voluntarily.

She told a radio phone-in on LBC: ‘I suppose I just have not looked at the possibility of that sort of blanket legislation in this area. We have seen employers actually taking it up, and naturally prefer employers to actively want to do something themselves. Sometimes you can appear to solve an issue with legislation, but what you really you need to get at is the attitude behind that.’

Speaking about her time as home secretary, she said: ‘When I sat down with people from the black police federation to talk about BME (black and minority ethnic) community members in policing, they said, “Yes, some work has been done to get us in to policing in the first place, but actually it’s not just getting in, it’s what happens when you’re in the workplace and how you’re treated”. So you have to change the whole attitude.’