Department for Education written question – answered at on 24 May 2024.
John Hayes
Conservative, South Holland and The Deepings
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse was of staff diversity networks in her Department in each of the last five years.
Damian Hinds
Minister of State (Education)
The government has audited the cost-effectiveness of all equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) activities, through the review of EDI spending announced last June.
On 14 May, the Minister without Portfolio made a written statement on the latest findings from the review. This can be found at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-05-14/hcws464.
In response to these findings, the Cabinet Office is publishing the Civil Service EDI Expenditure Guidance. This includes an end to all external spending on EDI activity, unless cleared and authorised by Ministers.
Further guidance on diversity staff networks is being developed, and the department will seek to publish additional data on historic spending to assist transparency in this area.
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
A Minister without Portfolio is a government minister with no specific responsibilities.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
