Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what the cost to the public purse was of staff diversity networks in his Department in each of the last five years.

Department diversity and inclusion staff networks spent a total of £814.40 from 2020/21 to 2023/24, as listed below:

- No spend identified in 2020/21;

- £198.00 spent in 2021/22;

- £500.00 spent in 2022/23; and

- £116.40 spent in 2023/24.

The spend was in relation to events and seminars, relating to significant dates for diversity and inclusion networks. No information on network spend is available for the year 2019/20 due to a change in our financial and human resources reporting system, where some of the detail was not transferred. Requests for expenditure are managed through the central human resources team where a robust process is applied to ensure impartiality, value, and increasing staff development.