Civil Service spends £27m on diversity in a year

Telegraph

30-05-2025

Whitehall spent £27 million on diversity in a single year, the first ever audit of bureaucracy 'wokery' has revealed.
An internal report from the Cabinet Office, commissioned by the last Conservative government, reveals there are 380 ' equality, diversity and inclusion ' (EDI) staff in the Civil Service.
They are paid £53,000 a year on average and their salaries cost taxpayers £20 million overall.
EDI staff in departments have been criticised for promoting contested theories such as that there is a spectrum of genders and that people can be guilty of microaggressions towards other people based on their race, gender or sexuality.
Gender-critical feminists have also claimed it can make them reluctant to speak openly about their views but proponents claim they ensure minority communities are treated fairly.
The cost of activities, including learning and development sessions, added up to £4.9 million in departments and £700,000 cross-government.
Another £800,000 was spent on 'external benchmarking' and membership of EDI organisations such as the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.
And £700,000 went towards diversity and inclusion staff networks. This comes to a total of £27.1 million in just one year.
This amount would pay for the winter fuel payments of 135,000 pensioners, or would fund the employment of more than 1,000 nurses.
The report found that the equivalent of 350 people within departments worked full time in EDI roles, along with 30 in cross-governmental functions.
It also said there are 570 'diversity staff networks' in government departments. These networks, with 2,965 committee members, represent different minority groups, and some Civil Service members spend half their weeks running them.
The report came as it emerged the Government is planning to get rid of around 50,000 Civil Service posts – one in 10 – to get the size of Whitehall down to pre-Brexit levels.
On Thursday, one Right-leaning think tank called on Labour to go further and sack a half of human resources staff and two in three communications roles to help save £5 billion a year.
Meanwhile, Reform UK has made slashing diversity and inclusion roles a key part of its policy platform.
The document, Civil Service EDI Expenditure Review Data, appeared on the Cabinet Office website on Thursday afternoon.
A total of 19 ministerial departments and 45 arm's-length bodies responded to the government review.
The research also looked at how much was spent on EDI in the big five departments – Department for Work and Pensions, Home Office, HM Revenue and Customs, Ministry of Defence and Ministry of Justice.
In 2023-24, the total spent in these five departments was £12.8 million.
A government spokesman said the £27 million equated to 0.006 per cent of Civil Service spend.
'This spending took place under the previous government,' she said.
'We are absolutely focused on ensuring every pound spent of taxpayer money delivers for the public – ending hospital backlogs, putting police back on the beat and securing our borders.'
Meanwhile, the Policy Exchange think tank called on the Government to go further and reduce the Civil Service by 80,000.
Within this, the report proposes halving the size of the senior Civil Service, the policy profession and the HR profession and a 70 per cent reduction in communications staff.
Commenting on the report, a former Treasury second permanent secretary said: 'Whether you believe in a big or a small state, we should all want one that is efficient and effective.
'An over-resourced administrative machine inevitably generates ever more process for itself and slows itself down.'