Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what due diligence was carried out on (a) Diversity Role Models and (b) Equaliteach, prior to those organisations receiving funding from his Department.

The department carried out an open grant competition in which the bids received were assessed against the required criteria, which were: understanding the anti-bullying agenda, ability to design a plan to meet the project needs, approach to stakeholder engagement, project management and governance arrangements, evaluation plans, and sustainability plans.

All five organisations had previously delivered anti-bullying support under previous department and Government Equalities Office grant schemes. The department is working with all five organisations in the normal way to ensure any training and resources produced as part of these projects are in line with our requirements.