Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what training his Department has provided to (a) general civil servants, (b) fast stream civil servants and (c) senior civil servants on devolution and inter-governmental relations; how many such courses have taken place; and how many civil servants have attended such training courses in each of the last five years.

All Civil Servants

(a) Civil Service Learning provide a range of central learning opportunities, including online and face-to-face training, for all civil servants on Devolution & Intergovernmental Working.

Fast Stream

(b) Introduced in 2017 as part of Fast Stream policy learning, delegates take part in a Devolution workshop, which all brand new entrant centrally managed Fast Streamers attend as part of their Induction offer.

SCS

(c) Each nation of the UK leads and hosts an annual SCS conference to learn from each other and build networks across the Policy Profession.

MHCLG Offer

Within the Department and to compliment the Civil Service Learning offer, eight events have been organised since 2016 with internal and external speakers. Records of numbers attended are not available:

The Devolution Agenda – Impacts and where it goes (external speaker)

Does England now want Devolution too? (external speaker)

Devolution and You Stall (internal drop in session)

Policy Teach In: Devolution in the UK (internal)

Policy Teach In: Devolution in the UK (internal)

Four nations devolution in UK (Internal)

Devolution and Local Growth: Lessons Learnt (internal GPM)

Devolution and Local Growth (internal GPM)