Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they maintain a central list of all departmental staff networks; if so, how often that list is updated; and whether that list is published or otherwise accessible to staff and the public.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Responsibility for, and management of departmental diversity networks is delegated to individual departments as the employer. Lists are not held centrally by the Cabinet Office.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the Civil Service Muslim Network receives financial support from departments or other public funds; and if so, how that expenditure is recorded, authorised and scrutinised.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Civil Service Muslim Network (CSMN) is a volunteer collaborative group of Civil Service staff. The majority of staff network time is voluntary. The CSMN network does not hold a budget, but a department can choose to provide support where there is a business case to do so. We are not aware of any such financial support and there has been no central funding.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what institutional governance arrangements exist to facilitate dialogue between civil service networks across government departments.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Cross Civil Service networks are volunteer-led networks. Representatives from these networks are able to come together periodically as a group to discuss appropriate issues. The arrangements for internal dialogue with and between individual departmental networks is a matter for departments.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what formal governance structures underpin the Civil Service Race Forum (CSRF), including whether it operates under a constitution or terms of reference; who is accountable for oversight of the CSRF; which department sponsors or hosts the CSRF; whether the departmental sponsor has changed since the inception of the CSRF; and what formal responsibilities the sponsoring department has in relation to CSRF governance, cost and activity.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Civil Service Race Forum (CSRF) was established in 2016 as a cross-government volunteer network. CSRF has developed their own Terms of Reference which govern their ways of working. These are informed by the Civil Service Code and CSRF’s own Governance Committee.
Cross-Civil Service networks do not have a sponsoring department. All network members are bound by the Civil Service Code. It is the responsibility of their employing department to make sure as civil servants they adhere to the Civil Service Code at all times including whilst conducting network activity.
CSRF does not hold a budget and there has been no cost to the public purse of the CSRF since 2020. We do not hold any records prior to this date.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many meetings of the Civil Service Race Forum's network leaders have taken place in each of the past four years; whether minutes are recorded and published; and how many ministers or Permanent Secretaries participated in those meetings in the past 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Civil Service Race Forum (CSRF) is a cross government volunteer network which is responsible for arranging its own meetings. The network has held a total of 48 meetings over the past four years which have included its network leaders. Due to the informal and often personal nature of these discussions formal minutes are not recorded or published. In the past 12 months, no Ministers or Permanent Secretaries have participated in CSRF network meetings.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impartiality of the Civil Service Muslim Network, and whether the principles of Civil Service impartiality are understood and adhered to by that body.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
All civil servants are bound by the Civil Service Code. All civil servants are expected to follow the standards of behaviour as set out in the Code, including the core values of integrity, honesty, objectivity and impartiality. It is the responsibility of the employing Department or Agency to make their employees aware of the Code and its values.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what formal governance framework underpins the Civil Service Muslim Network, and whether that network operates under a written constitution, charter or terms of reference agreed with the Cabinet Office.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Civil Service Muslim Network (CSMN) is a cross-government volunteer network. CSMN operates under Terms of Reference that were agreed at Senior Civil Service level by the (then) Faith and Belief Champion.
The Civil Service Code, which is published and available here, sets out the standards of behaviour expected of all civil servants.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what criteria determine eligibility for membership of the Civil Service Muslim Network, and whether membership is open to all Civil Servants regardless of faith or belief.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
Staff networks are volunteer networks, organised by staff themselves rather than the department.
The only membership criteria the Civil Service Muslim Network has is for members to be a current civil servant.
The Network openly invites civil servants of all backgrounds, beliefs, and non-beliefs to join the Civil Service Muslim Network.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by the Parliamentary Secretary at the Cabinet Office on 19 September (HC5049), whether the Cabinet Office Guidance on Diversity and Inclusion and Impartiality for Civil Servants, published on 14 May, remains in force; what assessment they have made of that guidance; and whether they have any plans to issue different guidance.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
The guidance published on 14 May remains in place.
Asked by: Lord Godson (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what are the titles and authors of works commissioned under the Official History Programme but not yet published; when these titles were commissioned; and when they are due to be published.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Shadow Minister (Treasury)
There are currently no Civil Servants allocated to the Official Histories Programme.
Works commissioned under the Official History Programme but not yet published are the fifth and final volume of the Official History of the Criminal Justice System and the second and final volume of the Official History of the Joint Intelligence Organisation.
It would not be possible to answer when titles were commissioned without disproportionate effort. However, this would have been well in excess of 10 years ago. We do not have any further prospective publishing dates at this time.
The Histories, Openness and Records Unit (HORU) was absorbed into the Knowledge and Information Management Unit (KIMU) in 2008. This is now known as the Cabinet Office Public Records and Archives (COPRA) Unit. The last Head of the Official History Programme retired from the Cabinet Office over 7 years ago.
The Government did not publish a response to the 2009 review of the Official History Programme led by Sir Joseph Pilling.