Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, whether their Department has run any (a) recruitment and (b) internship schemes aimed to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups in the workforce in the last year.

All staff that join the Scotland Office, do so on an assignment, loan or secondment from other Government bodies, principally the Ministry of Justice and the Scottish Government, who remain the employers. As such, the Scotland Office actively participates with the employers in any recruitment and internship schemes aimed to increase the number of people from underrepresented groups in the workforce.

In the past year, the Scotland Office has participated in the Civil Service Fast Stream Summer Internship Programme.