Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the Answer of 9 March 2022 to Question 132392 on civil service staff networks, what information he holds on (a) FTE staff time and (b) budgets available to recognised staff groups within his Department in each of the last three years.

Membership of DfT Networks is open to all staff who choose to be part of the network in question and most networks will have a lead or coordination group with individuals volunteering their time rather than FTE time being allocated. This time commitment will vary between the individuals and the networks depending on level of activity in the group. However, for Diversity and Inclusion related Networks, a budget is allocated which is held and monitored by the DfTc Diversity and Inclusion Team. There are 15 Diversity and Inclusion related Networks (though one of these, Young People’s Network, currently has no members and so is not included in the attached document) and in 2021/22 the budget allocated to them for the year amounted to £15,000 in total (based on £1,000 each). However, spend against budget is typically less than 50%. In 2019/20 & 2020/21, for accounting convenience, this budget was included in the ‘Room Hire’ account field and therefore it is not possible to ascertain exactly how much was allocated (though it was less than in 2021/22).