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More ethnic minorities and women should be proposed as candidates for heads of the funding councils, research councils and other quangos, the Cabinet Office has said.

By April 2002, the funding council boards should include at least one, and preferably two, representatives from an ethnic minority, and women should form 45 per cent of the membership, the Cabinet Office says. At present, the board of the Higher Education Funding Council for England has no representatives from the ethnic minorities and there are just four women among the 20 people who attend board meetings.

The proportion of people from ethnic minorities appointed to the research councils should be increased to 6 per cent, and the proportion of women to 33 per cent. At present, every research council is headed by a white man.