A hospital trust and two councils have been named among the 100 most gay-friendly employers in Britain.

Brighton and Hove City Council, East Sussex County Council and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust are all on Stonewall's Workplace Equality Index for 2006.

The index ranks employers according to a range of 20 criteria including effective engagement with lesbian and gay staff and service users.

Another criteria is the presence of an openly gay member on an organisation's board or senior management team.

Brighton and Hove City Council was ranked at 49 while the hospital trust came in at 59 and East Sussex County Council was placed 68th.

Staffordshire Police was ranked first, with IBM in second place and the Department of Work and Pensions and Manchester City Council equal third.

Brighton and Hove has a large lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and attracts thousands of visitors every year.

The annual Pride festival is one of the city's biggest events of the year.

Paul Elgood, chairman of the council's equalities forum, said: "The city council is committed to improving its equalities agenda and working with the city's diverse communities.

"The council's workforce must reflect the population of Brighton and Hove and there has been progress in terms of LGBT recruitment and employment in the last few years."

Philip Kemp, chairman of the hospital's LGBT group, said: "We are the only acute hospital trust to make the list and we are pleased our work has been recognised.

"At least 40 per cent of our gay and lesbian staff have been victims of homophobic bullying, so it is important they get the help and support they need in their workplace.

"We are working closely with the hospital's human resources department to ensure there is equality for all members of staff in all areas.

"We have had a lot of support from the trust management and the board."

East Sussex County Council leader Peter Jones said: "I am very pleased we have been included in the top 100 organisations on the Stonewall list.

"This is a recognition of our general approach on equality issues and the improvements we have made to personnel policies."

Wednesday, February 1, 2006