Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to page 17 of the UK Science and Technology Framework, published on 6 March 2023, what steps the Government plans to take to meet the target of increasing the proportion of STEM graduates in the Fast Stream to 50 per cent.

The Civil Service is committed to delivering the Prime Minister’s priorities, and recognises the need to build a strong internal STEM capability. To help build this capability, we are targeting an increase in the proportion of Fast Stream hires with a STEM subject degree qualification to 50%. To meet this target we have:

• Developed a STEM-specific attraction strategy, in partnership with the Science and Engineering Profession, leveraging the Fast Stream brand to target a STEM audience.

• Introduced a new Generalist-STEM recruitment option for the 2023 Fast Stream Campaign; which will enable us to attract and fairly select more graduates with STEM degree backgrounds to join the Fast Stream across a diverse range of roles in different government professions including Corporate Services, Operational Delivery, and Policy.

• Used the Fast Stream target university list, to identify institutions that have a high representation of students with a STEM background.

• Introduced a summer internship offer, with a specific focus on STEM graduates to act as a feeder for Fast Stream recruitment.

• Re-introduced numerical reasoning tests within the Fast Stream selection process.