Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, 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.

The Department considers the impact of its workforce policies and processes by routinely carrying out Equality Impact Assessments (EQIAs). The Department discusses the impact of changes to internal policies with the Departmental Trade Union Side (DTUS), and considers their comments when finalising EQIAs. 2.1.6 of the Civil Service Management Code does not place an obligation on Departments to share this information with their representative trade unions.

The Department has data dashboards, including a Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard updated quarterly, to facilitate monitoring of trends regarding Human Resources activity and protected characteristics.

The Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard is available to all Departmental staff, including trade union representatives.

The Department shares data with DTUS which is relevant to the areas being discussed with them each month, or following ad hoc requests.