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Researchers from the National Centre for Social Research, commissioned by the Department for Work and Pensions, sent out thousands of fake CVs to employers all over the country in an attempt to uncover discrimination occurring due to someone’s name. Three fake names were used, Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor, all the CVs contained similar experience and qualifications.

Of the three applicants, the one with the apparently white name took nine attempts before being offered an interview, whereas the other names took just under double that to get the same response. 987 applications were made from November 2008 to May 2009 and were sent to a broad spectrum of employers in several industries.

The results of this research clearly show that many employers do discriminate when it comes to race and Employment Minister, Jim Knight feels that this sort of discrimination has no place in modern British society.