National Health Service trusts have been prioritizing black and ethnic minority applicants on interview shortlists

NHS England had been discriminating against white job applicants by manipulating the interview shortlists…and it’s all in line with their guidance.

Official documents recommend that recruiters use the Rooney Rule, a policy from American football that makes it mandatory for ethnic minorities to be shortlisted for interviews when they apply. 

The Telegraph reports: Other so-called inclusive recruitment practices range from making managers justify hiring white British nationals to using race as a “tie-breaker”.

An NHS hospital in Liverpool admitted it had previously used “positive discrimination” to shortlist applicants from minority backgrounds.

The disclosure is the latest in a growing row over ‘racist’ hiring policies being pursued by public sector services following a decision by West Yorkshire Police to temporarily block applications from white Britons.

It is likely to cast a spotlight on organisations that attempt to give minorities priority during the interview process, particularly by focusing on how candidates are shortlisted.

A Tory source described the NHS as seeking to “discriminate against applicants based on their race”.

Grant Shapps, the former Tory Cabinet minister, said the “tick-box” exercise was “entrenching racial quotas”.

He said: “This kind of tick-box policy is patronising, divisive, and fundamentally wrong. Jobs should be awarded on merit, not skin colour.

“We should be building a colour-blind society, not entrenching racial quotas under the banner of ‘diversity’.”

Practices to promote diverse shortlists stem from the 2010 Equality Act, which made it legal to take “positive action” to support the recruitment of ethnic minorities.

The act, drawn up by Baroness Harman, the then Labour minister, has been seized upon by HR professionals who want to diversify their workforces.

Positive discrimination – where a minority candidate is explicitly favoured over a white candidate who is better qualified – is illegal in the UK.

Supporters of the Rooney Rule and similar measures argue they do not amount to discrimination because the interview process is the same for everyone on the shortlist.

Neil O’Brien, a Tory MP and former health minister, said public services had been infected by “race-based hiring policies” that mean “people are chosen based on the colour of their skin”.

He said: “The people who put these policies in place lump together every non-white group as if they are all the same, and will favour someone from a privileged background better than someone who has overcome all kinds of obstacles, as long as they have the right skin colour.”