Correction to Written Parliamentary Question 182223

David Rutley Excerpts

Thursday 25th January 2024 Written Statements

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs (David Rutley)]

On 2 May 2023, the FCDO responded to WPQ 182223 in relation to how much the FCDO spent on staff training related to diversity and inclusion in 2022.

The figure provided—£25,412.96—was inaccurate and an error. The figure was incorrectly provided as that amount had been charged to the account code relating to training in the team that was responsible for the diversity and inclusion work in 2022. Recent work has identified that none of the transactions put to this account code during this time period were actually diversity and inclusion training, and instead related to the running costs of that team, such as conference attendance.

The FCDO does not have a centrally organised diversity and inclusion training offer; instead, we use courses provided via Civil Service Learning.

Directorates and posts have devolved training budgets, which could have been used on training needs, but information is not collected centrally on whether this spend relates to equality and diversity training.

The FCDO has contributed to the Cabinet Office-led civil service equality, diversity and inclusion expenditure review, which is assessing current spending on EDI activity across the civil service to ensure that spend is providing a return on investment and that activity is being carried out in the most efficient and cost-effective way.

I am apologising for this error and clarifying the position in relation to diversity and inclusion training spend in 2022. We have learned from this situation. There has been a change in budget managers in that team and new financial procedures have been put in place to ensure greater accuracy. The Department continues to take its responsibility for parliamentary accountability very seriously.

[HCWS208]