To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many BAME staff are employed at (a) grade 7, (b) grade 5 and (c) grade 3 in his Department.

The number of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) staff employed as at 30 June 2019 in Grade 7, Grade 5 (Deputy Director equivalent) and Grade 3 (Director equivalent) roles are summarised in the table below. Where the total number of BAME staff is fewer than 5, the actual number is suppressed to protect anonymity. The following agencies are included in these figures: Education & Skills Funding Agency, Standards & Testing Agency and Teaching Regulation Agency.

The department has an internal Diversity & Inclusion Strategy with a priority of increasing BAME representation at senior grades. We have introduced a range of interventions to attract and recruit more people from diverse backgrounds that include anonymised sifting and more diverse interview panels and we expect to see an improvement in these numbers over the next 2 to 5 years. We recently launched Project Race which aims to improve race equality and tackle disproportionate outcomes for BAME colleagues though outreach, support, and open honest discussion.