The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is the most race-friendly public sector body, according to research published on Thursday.

The news will be welcomed by the department, whose permanent secretary, Sir Bill Jeffrey, serves as the civil service diversity champion.

The findings come from an annual survey run by Race for Opportunity, a race diversity campaign run by corporate responsibility member group Business in the Community.

The survey looks at how well large organisations recruit and manage staff from diverse backgrounds. Despite the recession, the study found, large employers are continuing to improve diversity in employment overall.

Among government departments doing well on racial diversity, the MoD is followed by the recently reorganised Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) and the Home Office – which came second and third respectively.

Director of the campaign, Sandra Kerr, said large companies and public bodies were making progress on racial diversity but much work was still needed. “Even amongst this elite group of employers, ethnic minorities remain worryingly far behind,” she said.