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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Lord Young of Norwood Green): The tables below show the breakdown of qualification levels of working-age adults¹ born in African countries south of the Sahara². We are unable to break this down by country of origin or professional occupation as the sample sizes are too

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small and any estimates would be unreliable. The levels given in the table below are National Qualifications Framework (NQF) levels and the data are taken from the 2007 annual population survey (APS) as this provided the greatest sample size and therefore the most reliable estimates.

	Numbers breakdown
Occupation Group	Level 4 and above	Level 3	Level 2	Below Level 2	No qualifications	Total
Managers and Senior Officials	38,400	9,400	11,000	8,300	1,600	68,700
Professional occupations	60,800	4,900	2,700	4,300	*	73,200
Associate Professional and Technical	50,000	10,000	8,100	6,800	400	75,400
Administrative and Secretarial	16,100	10,900	11,100	10,300	2,100	50,500
Skilled Trades Occupations	6,200	5,700	6,600	5,000	2,700	26,200
Personal Service Occupations	15,500	10,700	16,400	8,900	4,200	55,800
Sales and Customer Service Occupations	8,400	5,100	8,400	8,700	3,900	34,500
Process, Plant and Machine Operatives	4,000	3,200	7,100	8,100	8,700	31,000
Elementary Occupations	13,400	9,500	15,400	22,000	15,400	75,700
Total3	212,700	69,500	86,800	82,400	39,400	490,900

	Percentage Breakdown
Occupation Group	Level 4 and above	Level 3	Level 2	Below Level 2	No qualifications	Total
Managers and Senior Officials	56%	14%	16%	12%	2%	14%
Professional occupations	83%	7%	4%	6%	*	15%
Associate Professional and Technical	66%	13%	11%	9%	1 %	15%
Administrative and Secretarial	32%	22%	22%	20%	4%	10%
Skilled Trades Occupations	24%	22%	25%	19%	10%	5%
Personal Service Occupations	28%	19%	29%	16%	8%	11%
Sales and Customer Service Occupations	24%	15%	24%	25%	11%	7%
Process, Plant and Machine Operatives	13%	10%	23%	26%	28%	6%
Elementary Occupations	18%	13%	20%	29%	20%	15%
Total4	43%	14%	18%	17%	8%	100%

¹ Men aged 19-64 and women aged 19-59.

² Includes Angola, Benin, Sao Tome and Principe, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Sudan, Southern Sudan, Uganda, Horn of Africa, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Somalia, Botswana, Comoros, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Maghreb, Mauritania, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo.

³ This is the total of the above occupational groups and does not include unemployed people.

⁴ This is the total of the above occupational groups and does not include unemployed people.

The percentages above are subject to sampling variability. Most of the confidence intervals range from 3 to 8 percentage points— ie, the true value of an estimate may be up to 8 percentage points above or below the figure stated.

^*Numbers are too small and have been suppressed.

Source: 2007 annual population survey (APS). The 2008 APS is not yet available

India: Freedom of Religion

Question

Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty's Government what their response is to the recommendations by United Nations Rapporteurs on freedom of religion or belief about the extension of Scheduled Caste status to Muslims

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and Christians in India; and whether they will ask the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative to pursue the matter. [HL1385]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): We welcome the report by the United Nations special rapporteur on freedom of religion following her recent visit to India. It will provide a useful point of reference for human rights issues in India including as part of the ongoing EU-India human rights dialogue. The Government have not asked the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, an independent international non-governmental organisation, to pursue the matter. We, and our EU colleagues, will continue to monitor the situation and raise any concerns about incidents of religious intolerance in India with the appropriate human rights agencies in India.

Iran

Question

Asked by Lord Judd

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether adherence to the international rule of law and to the United Kingdom's obligations to the United Nations will remain paramount in their future policy towards Iran. [HL1323]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): As a matter of absolute principle, UK policy is made in accordance with international law, and we take our obligations to the UN very seriously.

We also expect Iran to abide by its own international obligations, including by respecting the international human rights commitments to which it is signed up, and abiding by the five UN Security Council resolutions passed since 31 July 2006.

Iran: British Council

Question

Asked by Lord Avebury

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they will ask the Government of Iran to reconsider their actions against British Council staff which have led to the suspension of the British Council's operations in Iran. [HL1319]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Lord Malloch-Brown): We have been very clear with the Iranians that we consider this behaviour unacceptable, and that they should allow the British Council to restart its operation as soon as possible. The Iranians have said that they would be prepared to negotiate a new cultural co-operation agreement which would allow the British Council to re-open. However, they have not responded to our attempts to start discussions on this.

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