GETTY The BBC has been accused of positive discrimination

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The taxpayer funded corporation - which had done an excellent job of ensuring black and ethnic employees were adequately represented at the BBC - has now been accused of potentially unlawful “positive discrimination in the workplace” after an advert was posted for a BBC internship which only black, Asian and non-white ethnic minorities (BAME) could apply for. The advert was placed by agency Creative Access on its website. The website’s organiser Michael Foster insisted the decision was to “rectify the imbalance of people who do not recruit black and Asian people”. However, Express.co.uk has analysed figures, as revealed in the corporation’s own Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2016-20 report, which show the BBC’s workforce already represents the entire country’s ethnic make up.

CREATIVEACCESS.CO.UK The advert for the BBC internship

Discrimination of any type is abhorrent and totally unacceptable and this kind of ‘positive’ discrimination is utterly counter-productive to race relations Jane Collins MEP, UKIP employment spokesman

Figures show in 2016, 13.4 per cent of the Beeb’s workforce are from Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities. This is actually above figures from the 2011 Census results, which show 13.1 per cent of the UK population are from Black, Asian and other ethnic minorities. And the licence-fee funded corporation aim to go one step further and increase Black, Asian and ethnic minorities to 15 per cent in their workforce by 2020. But critics are questioning why the BBC is positively discriminating if they are already one of the “most ethnically representative employers in Britain”. UKIP employment spokesman, Jane Collins MEP, said; “I didn't know the BBC had been put in charge of implementing 'positive' discrimination in the workplace. "As far as I’m aware, it is still illegal in this country to refuse an interview or a job to anyone due to their background, skin colour or religion. “This is a case of the BBC appointing itself as an arbiter of equality when the law requires them to provide equal opportunities for all.

“Equality law has to work both ways for it to be effective and I can understand why this situation has caused utter public outrage.” Positive discrimination is the act of giving advantage to those groups in society that are often treated unfairly because of their race or sex. But Ms Collins said condemned any discrimination. She added: “Discrimination of any type is abhorrent and totally unacceptable and this kind of ‘positive’ discrimination is utterly counter-productive to race relations. “The BBC is already one of the most ethnically representative employers in Britain, so I find it hard to understand why these jobs were not targeted at a far wider cross section of our society.” Omer Simjee, leading employment law partner at Irwin Mitchell LLP said the BBC had gone “too far” and accused the corporation of trying to get around “legal hurdles”.

BBC The BBC's Diversity and Inclusion Strategy

He said: “This is a potentially legitimate form of positive discrimination and it is also worth remembering that the BBC is subject to the public sector equality duty which requires organisations to consider how they can eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity. “I’ve no doubt that the BBC was trying to do the right thing here but I question whether the BBC has gone too far. “The Equality Act allows organisations to take positive action to encourage under-represented groups to apply for jobs or to participate in other opportunities. This advertisement goes further than that as it imposes a blanket ban on white applicants. “Positive action of this kind is only allowed if an employer can demonstrate that it is limiting applications to overcome the disadvantage suffered by minority groups and the steps taken to do this are ‘proportionate’. “It looks as though the BBC was trying to get around legal hurdles by advertising these applications as ‘internships’ rather than regular employment. “This is important because organisations which want to limit job applications to those from under represented groups have to jump through more hoops before they can lawfully exclude applications from others who are not part of this group. “A strict policy which treats persons of a disadvantaged group more favourably than others regardless of merit is not allowed. “

CREATIVEACCESS.CO.UK The roles being advertised on Creative Access