Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what information his Department holds on the socio-economic background of civil servants employed in each Government Department; and if he will make a statement.

The Cabinet Office holds data on socio-economic background (SEB) in the following ways: from applications to the Fast Stream graduate programme and the centrally run accelerated development schemes, including the Future Leaders’ Scheme (FLS), the High Potential Development Scheme (HPDS) and the Senior Leaders’ Scheme (SLS) and is piloting other ways of gaining data, on a voluntary and anonymous basis, including from the annual People Survey, in future years.

The SEB measures are questions which the Civil Service developed over two years to assess socio-economic background.

The Civil Service Fast Stream has been recording socioeconomic background data of its applicants since 2011.

The Civil Service Future Leaders Scheme (FLS) and Senior Leaders Scheme (SLS) have been recording SEB data from its applicants since 2016. The Civil Service High Potential Development Scheme have been recording SEB data from its applicants since 2017.

Individual departments may have undertaken surveys of the socio-economic background of their employees, but this is not held by the Cabinet Office.