Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to ensure her Department complies with section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code; and whether that monitoring data gathered is shared with union representatives.

DCMS routinely collects the data set out in section 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code (CSMC) and uses it to inform the department’s Diversity & Inclusion strategy. There is no obligation to share this information with Trade Union representatives. However, DCMS regularly shares D&I data, equality impact assessments and other relevant information in order to support engagement and discussion with the unions on areas of policy. Detailed information on the Civil Service workforce is also collected and published centrally as part of the Annual Civil Service Employment Statistics.

DCMS’s D&I strategy is aligned to the new Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2025 which recognises our success and builds on this good work to encourage a broader range of people into the Civil Service to give depth to our understanding of contemporary society in the United Kingdom. It provides the necessary framing for diversity and inclusion activity in the Civil Service as part of our wider workforce strategy, and through that, how the Civil Service delivers for its people, the government and our citizens.

A link to the Civil Service statistics can be found at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/civil-service-statistics