Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many BAME civil servants there are at the Ministry of Defence at (1) SCS1, (2) SCS2, (3) SCS3, and (4) SCS4, grade.

Defence has been working hard to achieve a more diverse workforce. However, progress in terms of the representative rates of our people – both military and civilian – has been too slow. It is clear there is still much further to go if we are to successfully attract and retain diverse talent both now and in the future. That is why we have renewed our levels of ambition at the highest levels in Defence as we work to fulfil the key objective in our 2018-2030 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy to eliminate discrimination and improve diversity throughout Defence. Work is ongoing to improve all aspects of diversity in the Ministry of Defence (MOD), including through reviewing Senior Civil Servant recruitment processes and better targeted marketing and communications.

As at 1 April 2020, in the MOD (Main), the sum total of Senior Civil Servants (SCS) self-declaring as Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic (BAME) was less than 10; of those, there were fewer than 10 SCS at Pay Band 1 and fewer than five at Pay Band 2. At the same date, the SCS in MOD Main was comprised of, respectively, 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent of the total MOD Main BAME and White workforce.

The MOD publishes biannual statistics on diversity declarations for Armed Forces personnel and MOD civilian staff. The latest editions can be found at the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/uk-armed-forces-biannual-diversity-statistics-index

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-diversity-dashboard-2020