Business demand for recruiters' commitment to diversity is intensifying, with an announcement by two major UK master vendors that they will require suppliers on their preferred supplier lists to achieve a new diversity certification.

Matrix Management Services and SkyBlue Solutions have written to their preferred supplier list members to warn they will be frozen out unless they become diversity assured.

The Diversity Assured Recruitment (DAR) is the accreditation launched by the REC and Birmingham Professional DiverCity. It is being billed as the new standard for recruitment agencies to achieve best practice status in diversity terms within the recruitment industry.

Adam Herron, director of Matrix Management Services, said: "Consequently all our public sector clients have decided to make DAR a requirement for suppliers to be included in their PSLs as of August.

"We wrote to all our members last July to make this intention clear and encouraged over 500 agencies to achieve the standard before the deadline," Herron said. Matrix is a wholly-owned division of recruit- ment agency Eden Brown.

Richard Toy, head of operations at SkyBlue, said: "We are fully committed to equality and diversity and would encourage other master vendors to take the same steps." SkyBlue is part of Carillion.

The move by Matrix and SkyBlue is in step with public sector agencies' efforts to encourage diversity in recruitment. Amin Ladha, senior diversity advisor at the London Borough of Ealing Council, said: "Essentially diversity is at the core of the council's business as we want a workforce which represents, at every level, the community we serve, and we expect partners working with us to share this vision."

However, achieving the certification is not free. The cost is between £1,500 and £2,500, Jamie Davies, sector development consultant of Birmingham Professional DiverCity, told Recruiter. REC members will receive a discount. The cost covers a six-to-eight week HealthCheck before accreditation, a dedicated consultant and all associated administration.

Among the key benefits of accreditation will be removing the requirement to reproduce documentation, monitoring data and other evidence that a company meets both legal and tender requirements every time work is bid for, Davies said.

"We have already confirmed, and are confirming with many more major public and blue-chip employers, that they will require their current and future suppliers to become Diversity Assured," Davies said.