Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the hon. Member for Perth and North Perthshire, representing the House of Commons Commission, what the total cost is of the unconscious bias training commissioned by the House of Commons.
Answered by Pete Wishart
The total cost will be £9,750.
Asked by: Peter Kyle (Labour - Hove)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve BAME representation amongst the staff of the Youth Justice Board (a) overall and (b) at Grade 7-5 level.
Answered by Lucy Frazer - Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
The YJB is a non-departmental public body and as such has responsibility for its own recruitment policies and processes. They are seeking to address disproportionality by implementing good practice from other organisations.
The YJB’s actions to date include:
The YJB’s Equality and Diversity Group are reviewing the success of YJB’s measures and may make recommendations to the organisation on further good practice.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of unconscious bias on the treatment of BAME covid-19 patients.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No such assessment has been made.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.
Answered by James Brokenshire
The table below shows the spend for the last two financial years. There was no spend for the financial years 16/17 or 17/18. Figures for the financial year 15/16 are not available.
Spend on Unconscious Bias Training
Period | Spend |
1 April 18 to 31 Mar 19 | £7,949 |
1 April 19 to 31 Mar 20 | £46,131 |
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
A review is currently being done of what future diversity and inclusion learning should be provided as part of a cross-Civil Service Learning offer. This includes looking at unconscious bias training, and what training shall be promoted. The information on spend is not held centrally.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the Government's policy is on unconscious bias training for civil servants; and what plans he has to encourage the use of that training among civil servants.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
A review is currently being done of what future diversity and inclusion learning should be provided as part of a cross-Civil Service Learning offer. This includes looking at unconscious bias training, and what training shall be promoted. The information on spend is not held centrally.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Edward Argar - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The following table shows how much the Department has spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years:
Reporting year | Spend |
April 2019 – March 2020 | £12,234 |
April 2018 – March 2019 | N/A |
April 2017 – March 2018 | N/A |
April 2016 – March 2017 | N/A |
April 2015 – March 2016 | N/A |
Required Unconscious Bias online training for all staff which is accessed via Civil Service Learning forms part of the Civil Service Learning offer. Although we pay a yearly subscription cost for all Civil Service Learning, we are not able to provide a breakdown of spend for the required Unconscious Bias online training for all staff accessed via Civil Service Learning.
In addition to online training, in 2019-20 we held and paid for face to face Unconscious Bias workshops as part of Senior Civil Service and management training programmes.
Whilst our records show a spend of £12,234 for April 2019 to March 2020, learning on Unconscious Bias is built into other learning programmes, such as our line management training offer. This includes workshops on ‘Leading Inclusive Teams’ and ‘Building Effective Teams’. It is not possible to extract the amount spent on Unconscious Bias where this forms part of a broader training offer.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.
Answered by John Whittingdale
All staff are expected to complete Diversity and Inclusion e-learning on an annual basis. This includes modules on unconscious bias. All e-learning is free of charge to staff as it is covered by the department’s annual payment to access Civil Service Learning.
In addition to this DCMS spent £7,500+VAT in f/y 2019/20 on face to face unconscious bias training.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how much the Department spent on unconscious bias training in each of the last five years.
Answered by Nigel Adams
There are three ways the FCDO supports staff in this learning: by direct access to the Civil Service Learning (CSL) website, by accessing CSL via the FCDO's internal learning system, Global Learning Opportunities (GLO), or by learning provided by specialists and learning champions overseas. There is no cost to departments for the online CSL unconscious bias training. We do not hold any data centrally for unconscious bias courses delivered overseas or for earlier periods.
Asked by: Mark Hendrick (Labour (Co-op) - Preston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what unconscious bias training his Department offers to healthcare professionals.
Answered by Helen Whately - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
There are elements of the Equality, Diversity and Human Rights Level 1 session, which deal with the concept of unconscious bias. This session is part of the e-Learning for Healthcare Statutory and Mandatory Training Programme and is aimed at all staff, including unpaid and voluntary staff.
Individual National Health Service organisations have responsibility for training their own staff and will provide further relevant training where appropriate.