Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what schemes the Government run to encourage people from lower socio-economic backgrounds into the civil service.

We have a range of schemes to encourage people from lower all backgrounds to join the civil service including:

• Apprenticeships, a new strategy was launched in April 2022 and included a target for lower-socio economic backgrounds.

• Accelerated development schemes like the Fast Stream. (Representation from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the Fast Stream has increased annually since 2016.)

• Civil Service Commission’s Going Forward into Employment Scheme: Life Chances scheme, uses innovative approaches to recruit people from a wide range of backgrounds into the Civil Service with targeted recruitment of care leavers, prison leavers and veterans.

• Internships such as the Summer Diversity Internship Programme, the scope of which has been broadened to include lower-socio economic backgrounds.

• Mentoring and sponsorship such as the Ministry of Justice Graduate Aspiration programme.

• Outreach is carried out by many of our departments within Schools, Colleges and Universities to raise awareness of the broad range of Civil Service careers available.

• Work experience placements such as Movement to Work which supports employers to provide work placements that combine employability skills training with on-the-job experience.