Civil Servants: Recruitment

(asked on 24th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what steps he is taking to promote diversity in the Civil Service Fast Stream.


Answered by
Michael Ellis Portrait
Michael Ellis
This question was answered on 27th January 2022

The proportion of ethnic minority groups overall being appointed to the Civil Service Fast Stream in 2021 was 23.3%, this aligns with the 2019/20 Higher Education Statistics Agency graduate population level of 23.7% for ethnicity.

Steps to ensure that students from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are successful in their application to the Civil Service Fast Stream start with outreach, attraction and marketing activity, which is designed to encourage applications from individuals from all backgrounds and locations. This is undertaken via early stage schools, college and apprenticeship engagement, along with industrial and internship placements. We have developed an inclusive website, social media strategy, and refreshed the target university list for outreach.

Further to this, the Cabinet Office is:

  • expanding the range of internships we offer,

  • undertaking cultural bias reviews of our selection processes,

  • increasing assessor diversity, and

  • improving our fair and inclusive selection processes by incorporating more regional/virtual assessment.

Reticulating Splines