Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what targets his Department has for increasing diversity; and what progress has been made on meeting those targets in the last year.

The Civil Service has a longstanding commitment to promoting equality of opportunity and ensuring that the Civil Service is representative of the society it serves. Central to this is the principle of appointment on merit which is the foundation of Civil Service recruitment and enshrined in law.

Core Defra does not have numerical targets for increasing our workforce diversity. However, Defra's Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2013-15 contains a clear goal for Defra to become a diverse and inclusive Department ‘that can attract and retain talented people from the widest range of backgrounds and offer all our employees equality of opportunity to progress and achieve their potential on merit.'

Defra is also committed to reviewing our Equality Objectives and monitoring our performance against them and further information is provided in our Workforce Monitoring Report here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/department-for-environment-food-rural-affairs/about/equality-and-diversity

Defra's Diversity and Inclusion Strategy is underpinned by an action plan, with good progress made in the first year, including:

• Mandating unconscious bias training for managers of people and those involved in recruitment and interviewing.
• Introducing senior leader Diversity Champions for specific groups.
• Participating fully in Positive Action Pathways, Diversity Schemes and Programmes.
• Ongoing participation in the award winning ‘Summer Diversity Internship Programme', specifically aimed at underrepresented students.