Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what progress has been made on ensuring that (a) local government, (b) the police, (c) the NHS and (d) other parts of the public sector review their approaches to staff training as a result of the evidence and developments in the Civil Service.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Unconscious bias training courses were removed from the Civil Service cross-Civil Service curriculum in January 2021. The Cabinet Office also took action to remove unconscious bias training from any relevant learning and related materials. The Written Ministerial Statement on this was communicated to all departments.
The Civil Service is committed to maintaining a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. A review of existing learning is being conducted to ensure new learning utilises evidence-based interventions. The government expects other parts of the public sector to review their approaches in light of the evidence and developments in the Civil Service.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to ensure the phasing out of unconscious bias training for civil servants in Government departments.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Unconscious bias training courses were removed from the Civil Service cross-Civil Service curriculum in January 2021. The Cabinet Office also took action to remove unconscious bias training from any relevant learning and related materials. The Written Ministerial Statement on this was communicated to all departments.
The Civil Service is committed to maintaining a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. A review of existing learning is being conducted to ensure new learning utilises evidence-based interventions. The government expects other parts of the public sector to review their approaches in light of the evidence and developments in the Civil Service.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Unconscious bias training courses were removed from the Civil Service cross-Civil Service curriculum in January 2021. The Cabinet Office also took action to remove unconscious bias training from any relevant learning and related materials. The Written Ministerial Statement on this was communicated to all departments.
The Civil Service is committed to maintaining a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. A review of existing learning is being conducted to ensure new learning utilises evidence-based interventions. The government expects other parts of the public sector to review their approaches in light of the evidence and developments in the Civil Service.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
Unconscious bias training courses were removed from the Civil Service cross-Civil Service curriculum in January 2021. The Cabinet Office also took action to remove unconscious bias training from any relevant learning and related materials. The Written Ministerial Statement on this was communicated to all departments.
The Civil Service is committed to maintaining a strong focus on diversity and inclusion. A review of existing learning is being conducted to ensure new learning utilises evidence-based interventions. The government expects other parts of the public sector to review their approaches in light of the evidence and developments in the Civil Service.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra draws its training provision from Civil Service Learning (CSL), which included access to unconscious bias training products for all staff including Senior Civil Servants. It is mandatory for civil servants to use CSL for their learning.
In January 2021, CSL took the decision to withdraw the product in line with the Ministerial Statement that outlined why this training should cease. The learning pages on our internal intranet were updated and staff are now directed to the CSL product called Inclusion in the Civil Service, therefore ensuring that unconscious bias training has been phased out in Defra. Natural England took the same action.
The Environment Agency removed unconscious bias training from its list of mandatory learning in January 2021. A short e-learning product remains accessible as a topic of interest.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Chris Philp - Minister of State (Home Office)
In December 2020, the Government Equalities Office commissioned the Behavioural Insights Team for a summary of the evidence on unconscious bias and diversity training. The report highlighted that ‘there is currently no evidence that this training changes behaviour in the long term or improves workplace equality in terms of representation of women, ethnic minorities or other minority groups’. It also states that there is emerging evidence of unintended negative consequences.
In light of these findings, Ministers concluded that the unconscious bias learning provision did not achieve its aims and should be phased out in the Civil Service.
The Ministry of Justice has taken the following actions to phase out Unconscious Bias training.
In December 2020, department Senior Leadership Group directors, along with HR practitioners in Learning & Development and Diversity & Inclusion, were alerted to the withdrawal of Unconscious Bias training. Guidance explained that MoJ group should also look to wind-up the use of unconscious bias stand-alone products.
The same information was also cascaded through the Diversity & Inclusion and Learning & Development networks in department business areas, staff support networks and through subject champions.
The Diversity, Inclusion & Wellbeing team is currently refreshing the strategic approach to diversity and inclusion. In the meantime, staff who are looking for diversity training are encouraged to make use of 'Inclusion in the Civil Service', a revised version of Diversity and Inclusion that has been added to the Civil Service Learning website. This includes four modules:
Unconscious Bias has also been removed from the department Learning Management System and the 'Essential Learning' learner pathway has been updated to include 'Inclusion in the Civil Service' instead.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Nick Gibb
In October 2020, the Department began phasing out the unconscious bias training by removing the product from the mandatory training schedule.
Following the Ministerial Statement on 15 December 2020, in January 2021 the Department fully removed unconscious bias training.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps he has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in his Department.
Answered by Eddie Hughes
Prior to the written statement of 15 December, MHCLG signposted colleagues to the Unconscious Bias online learning provided by Civil Service Learning (CSL) via the Learning Platform for Government (LPG). This learning was removed from the platform by CSL in line with the written statement and can no longer be accessed by MHCLG colleagues. MHCLG colleagues have not been signposted to alternative unconscious bias training and the Department has not designed or delivered any bespoke unconscious bias training designed specifically for an MHCLG audience.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps she has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in her Department.
Answered by Victoria Atkins - Secretary of State for Health and Social Care
Upon receipt of the direction from Civil Service HR that Unconscious Bias training was to be removed from the Civil Service core learning offer from January 2021 the Home Office HR Learning team communicated this change across the Home Office: directly to HR Directors and DGs on 11 January; via ‘Management Matters’ internal staff news bulletin on 14 January; and via the HR/Learning network newsletter on 20 January. This message was also conveyed in briefings to Trade Unions and Home Office People Committee during February.
In addition to the CO direction the Windrush Lesson Learned Review recommendation 29 stated that the Home Office should review its diversity and inclusion and unconscious bias awareness training. The training materials being developed for implementation from September 2021 will not include Unconscious Bias training, confirmed with the Permanent Secretary on 23 March.
Asked by: Philip Davies (Conservative - Shipley)
Question to the Department for International Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, with reference to the Written Statement of 15 December 2020, HCWS652, on Unconscious bias training, what steps she has taken to phase out unconscious bias training in her Department.
Answered by Greg Hands - Minister of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The Department for International Trade (DIT) stopped mandating completion of the Cabinet Office supplied Unconscious Bias (UB) digital (e-learning) training for all staff (including UKEF) in November 2019 when they replaced it with Diversity and Inclusion (2019) training. This was later superseded in 2020 with Inclusion in the Civil Service training.
All the above digital training is/was owned and supplied by Civil Service Learning (CSL) who are an expert service function of the Cabinet Office.
The DIT internal intranet site and Learning Hub were both updated in 2019 to remove reference to the standalone UB training and replaced with the new alternate recommended training. In addition, steps were taken to ensure relevant DIT policies and processes were updated to remove and/or replace reference to the standalone UB digital training as appropriate.