REDBRIDGE Council has apologised after being caught calling some of the borough's school children "Pakis" in an internal document.

According to the national Guardian newspaper, a spreadsheet circulated among staff detailing the ethnic break-down of pupils used the offensive term to refer to students of Pakistani origin.

Anti-racism groups have slammed the council for its use of the word, while the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said it is to investigate.

In a statement to the newspaper, the council originally blamed the issue on a computer error, claiming the full word had been automatically shortened by the spreadsheet software.

However in a later statement, the council backtracked and admitted someone had typed in the term manually.

The document also refers to children of Pakistani origin variously as "Pankistani", "Pak" and "Paki" on three occasions, the national Guardian has reported.

Ali Qureshi, of the Avenue in Wanstead, is of Pakistani origin and a member of the Redbridge Race Equality Council.

He said: "I'm quite shocked.

"This should never have happened. An apology is not enough - we have to have an undertaking from the council through its internal systems to make sure that this will not be repeated.

"This is a very sensitive issue, especially the timing as it is Ramadhan and many of us are fasting this month."

A council spokeswoman said: "Redbridge Council fully accepts that the use of this abbreviated term is wholly unacceptable and inappropriate and would never condone the use of such language.

"Having looked at the spreadsheet, in addition to the unacceptable term paki the document also contains a variety of abbreviations and spelling mistakes and was circulated in error.

"When this was realised at an away day those present were asked to hand in the document so they could be destroyed. The author of the spreadsheet apologised.

"When this matter first came to light last year it was investigated by the manager of the Sure Start programme who was satisfied that there was no intention to use insulting language. This was a combination of human and IT error. This is an issue which will be addressed through the department’s Equalities training.

"Sure Start managers have also now been instructed that their staff should not generate their own ethnicity analysis but instead should use the analysis already produced by the Research and Data Team in Children’s Services which uses ethnicity codes specified by the DCSF within the Common Basic Data Set for Children’s Services.”

Are you someone of Pakistani origin living in Redbridge? What do you think? Contact the Guardian on 0779 547 6625 or via email at dbinns@london.newsquest.co.uk