Asked by: Lord Bishop of St Albans (Bishops - Bishops)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of recent research reported by The Times which suggests that unconscious bias training is not effective.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
This research is a welcome addition to the canon of research on the efficacy of diversity and inclusion (D&I) training.
We removed central unconscious bias training following the 2020 Behavioural Insight Team report which concluded that unconscious bias training was ineffective. This is supported by the recent report on the Inclusion at Work Panel’s recommendations for improving D&I practice in the workplace (published 20 March 2024). We are currently considering these recommendations, including the recommendation to develop a digital tool kit to assess the rigour, efficacy and value for money of a range of D&I practices, including training interventions.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has had correspondence with St Albans City and District Council on its timetable for completing its local plan.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Secretary of State wrote to St Albans City and District Council on 19 December 2023 to direct they produce a revised Local Development Scheme and a copy of the letter can be found here.
St Albans City and District Council is one of only 12 local planning authorities who have not published a local plan under the 2004 Act; their last adopted plan was in 1994. This is unacceptable and St Albans City and District Council are ultimately responsible for this.
Should St Albans City and District Council need to prioritise its finite resources it might choose to cease unconscious bias training (something stopped by central government several years ago) or the unnecessary equality, diversity and inclusion work that is underway.
Asked by: Daisy Cooper (Liberal Democrat - St Albans)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will provide additional funding for the St Albans City & District Council Local Plan to be expedited.
Answered by Lee Rowley - Minister of State (Minister for Housing)
The Secretary of State wrote to St Albans City and District Council on 19 December 2023 to direct they produce a revised Local Development Scheme and a copy of the letter can be found here.
St Albans City and District Council is one of only 12 local planning authorities who have not published a local plan under the 2004 Act; their last adopted plan was in 1994. This is unacceptable and St Albans City and District Council are ultimately responsible for this.
Should St Albans City and District Council need to prioritise its finite resources it might choose to cease unconscious bias training (something stopped by central government several years ago) or the unnecessary equality, diversity and inclusion work that is underway.
Asked by: Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi (Labour - Slough)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of the training provided to prison staff on the prevention of (a) unconscious bias and (b) discrimination.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
MoJ Learning and Development for HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) provides operational training, predominantly for newly recruited prison officers and other prison staff. This training covers discrimination, which includes diversity and inclusion, procedural justice perceptions and rehabilitative culture. All HMPPS D&I learning has a common thread of conscious inclusion. The content of the prison officer training programme has been designed in consultation with organisational policy leads.
All HMPPS staff have access to an online e-learning platform called MyLearning. This platform enables staff to continue their professional development journey and offers additional learning which includes workplace adjustments, developing cultural intelligence, diversity and inclusion and respect in the workplace. The Civil Service Expectations training package is also included on this platform which covers discrimination.
The HMPPS Race Action Programme has a Learning and Development Project which has ambitions to address racial discrimination by improving our staff learning offer. This work began with a review of our existing learning provisions to assess quality and relevance. The project is now working to create an open learning culture for all; with better coordinated and more dynamic learning activity which will embed inclusivity across our organisation. This includes establishing a Learning Gateway Board to quality assure new learning, developing an interactive learning platform and setting up a central hub for all diversity and inclusion learning materials.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much his Department spent on staff training related to diversity and inclusion in 2022.
Answered by Jeremy Quin
The Cabinet Office do not hold a central departmental record of all training and associated spend, including that relating to diversity and inclusion (D&I) training in 2022.
In January 2020, following an internal review that showed unconscious bias training does not achieve its intended aims, it has been phased out in the Civil Service. We encourage other public sector employers to do likewise.
Asked by: Baroness Benjamin (Liberal Democrat - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to include in the National Crime Agency’s Missing Persons Data Report data on the ethnicity of people who go missing including (1) the recorded risk factors of those people, such as mental health issues, sexual exploitation or criminal exploitation, (2) the length of time missing, and (3) how those people are found or return.
Answered by Lord Sharpe of Epsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)
This is a matter for the National Crime Agency (NCA), which is operationally independent of Government. The NCA’s annual Missing Persons Data Report includes analysis of risk factors, duration of missing incidents and statistics on found and returned persons.
The Home Office has funded the National Policing lead for Missing persons to conduct research to explore disproportionality and discrimination in police missing persons investigations; comparing how risk is categorised in different ethnic groups. The final report will be completed this year. Deputy Chief Constable Hankinson, the National Policing lead for Missing Persons is committed to working with partner agencies to understand issues of disproportionality and addressing any issues of unconscious bias if this is indicated in the research.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether appeal body members are required to undergo unconscious bias training.
Answered by Sarah Atherton
In 2020, the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team for a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias (UB) and diversity training. In light of its findings, Ministers concluded that UB training does not achieve its intended aims. In 2021, UB training was phased out in the Civil Service and the Armed Forces. There is no requirement for Service Complaints’ decision and appeal body members to undertake UB training.
To ensure we continue to build fairer and more effective workplaces the Diversity and Inclusion 2020 course has been replaced by Inclusion in the Civil Service. The Inclusion in the Civil Service course comprises of four modules (Equality, diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service; Our inclusive workplace; Our customers; and the legal framework) and has had the UB training elements removed. Completion of this course is a mandatory annual requirement for all civilians in the Ministry of Defence, and for military line managers of civilians.
All Defence personnel (civilian and military) complete mandatory annual diversity and inclusion training courses. In addition, a new Active Bystander course has been rolled-out to equip personnel with the skills to effectively challenge unacceptable behaviour.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many decision body members are required to undergo unconscious bias training.
Answered by Sarah Atherton
In 2020, the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team for a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias (UB) and diversity training. In light of its findings, Ministers concluded that UB training does not achieve its intended aims. In 2021, UB training was phased out in the Civil Service and the Armed Forces. There is no requirement for Service Complaints’ decision and appeal body members to undertake UB training.
To ensure we continue to build fairer and more effective workplaces the Diversity and Inclusion 2020 course has been replaced by Inclusion in the Civil Service. The Inclusion in the Civil Service course comprises of four modules (Equality, diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service; Our inclusive workplace; Our customers; and the legal framework) and has had the UB training elements removed. Completion of this course is a mandatory annual requirement for all civilians in the Ministry of Defence, and for military line managers of civilians.
All Defence personnel (civilian and military) complete mandatory annual diversity and inclusion training courses. In addition, a new Active Bystander course has been rolled-out to equip personnel with the skills to effectively challenge unacceptable behaviour.
Asked by: John Healey (Labour - Wentworth and Dearne)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether decision body members are required to undergo unconscious bias training.
Answered by Sarah Atherton
In 2020, the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team for a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias (UB) and diversity training. In light of its findings, Ministers concluded that UB training does not achieve its intended aims. In 2021, UB training was phased out in the Civil Service and the Armed Forces. There is no requirement for Service Complaints’ decision and appeal body members to undertake UB training.
To ensure we continue to build fairer and more effective workplaces the Diversity and Inclusion 2020 course has been replaced by Inclusion in the Civil Service. The Inclusion in the Civil Service course comprises of four modules (Equality, diversity and inclusion in the Civil Service; Our inclusive workplace; Our customers; and the legal framework) and has had the UB training elements removed. Completion of this course is a mandatory annual requirement for all civilians in the Ministry of Defence, and for military line managers of civilians.
All Defence personnel (civilian and military) complete mandatory annual diversity and inclusion training courses. In addition, a new Active Bystander course has been rolled-out to equip personnel with the skills to effectively challenge unacceptable behaviour.
Asked by: Lyn Brown (Labour - West Ham)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the report by Hibiscus Initiatives and others, entitled Tackling double disadvantage, published on 22 January 2022.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
The recommendations included in the "Tackling Double Disadvantage” report are being considered by the Female Offender Minority Ethnic working group established by the Ministry of Justice.
Collecting data allows us to monitor the prevalence of violence against women and girls amongst different groups and further integrate a diverse range of victim experiences into conversations and policy decisions. The Home Office is committed to establishing a data collection on offences where the crime has been motivated by a hostility to the victim’s sex, with discussions with police forces ongoing. A voluntary collection on the ethnicity of victims of all crime began on 1st April this year. Together, these collections will allow us to assess gender-based violence by ethnicity.
The Home Office does not collect information on whether a victim or perpetrator of crime was a migrant or not.
In July 2021, we published our cross-Government Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Strategy and on 30th March published the Tackling Domestic Abuse Plan. For the first time, our Strategy and Plan were shaped by the public’s views – we ran a national Call for Evidence on Tackling Violence Against Women and Girls which received an unprecedented 180,000 responses. We actively sought input from underrepresented groups and held focus groups to ensure that we heard the perspectives of people from ethnic minority backgrounds and refugee and migrant women expert service providers. In the Tackling VAWG Strategy, we committed to working with the Office for National Statistics to review current available data on violence against women and girls and identify the priorities for data improvement.
The report states its aim to improve outcomes and reduce inequalities for ethnic minority and migrant women in contact with the criminal justice system. We agree it is vital that police officers and criminal justice staff have the right competences and values, and an understanding, especially when dealing with the most vulnerable in our society. The College of Policing’s foundation training for all those entering the service includes substantial coverage of police ethics and self-understanding, including the effects of personal conscious and unconscious bias. The initial training undertaken by all officers also covers hate crimes, ethics and equalities, and policing without bias. In addition, the College of Policing have developed specialist domestic abuse training, the Domestic Abuse Matters programme, which has been, or is in the process of being delivered for, the majority of forces (32 Home Office forces have either completed the training, are currently in process of, or are mobilising). The first responders training makes covers dealing with the specific vulnerabilities of different victims.
The new full-time National Policing Lead for Violence Against Women and Girls, DCC Maggie Blyth, has included building trust and confidence as a key pillar of the Policing VAWG National Framework for delivery. This includes working with charities supporting ethnic minority and migrant women and girls to avoid their specific needs being overlooked.