Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how his Department measures the diversity performance of the College for National Security; and whether there are safeguards to help ensure that oversight mechanisms do not (a) create bias and (b) unlawfully process protected data.

The College for National Security provides the national security community and wider civil service access to learning and development.

The College’s offer is open to all civil and crown servants and safeguards are in place to ensure content is only accessed by staff with appropriate clearances.

Diversity data of learners engaging in this initial offer is not currently collected as standard and is not used for performance purposes. In some cases, additional information such as location, disability or nationality information may be collected for operational purposes, for example to ensure we meet accessibility requirements.

Personal data is currently collected and processed in line with the College’s Privacy Notice, which can be accessed on GOV.UK here.