Esther McVey (Image: Getty)
MORE than 370 “equality, diversity and inclusion” civil service roles are to be axed in the Government’s crackdown on woke practices in Whitehall.
It’s part of a bid to slash the ￡27.1 million cost of so-called equality, diversity and inclusion initiatives, known as EDI, in the heart of government.
Staff will also be promised protection from bullying if they refuse to sign up to woke ideas, for example by failing to include their pronouns on email signatures.
New guidance makes it clear that this “should be a personal and voluntary decision and no civil servant should be treated adversely for choosing or not choosing to do so”.
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Ministers were shocked when a review overseen by Cabinet Office Minister Esther McVey found that total EDI expenditure across 95 Civil Service organisations was ￡27.1 million in the 2022-23 financial year.
The 373 standalone EDI roles will “cease to exist”, with work carried out by existing human resource departments instead.
And managers will be warned that they must not push political or “contested” views on issues such as trans rights on staff, or allow colleagues who refuse to sign up to these views to be bullied.
New guidance warns: “In diversity and inclusion delivery, civil servants need to ensure individual personal and political views do not, and are not perceived to, influence our advice or actions.
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“We are committed to taking a zero-tolerance approach to bullying, harassment and discrimination and grow a culture that welcomes challenge and demands rigour in how we assess delivery for citizens.”
A number of government departments have paid for advice or training from pressure group Stonewall.
The Department for Business and Trade paid Stonewall ￡2,500 plus VAT in financial years 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 as membership fees as part of Stonewall’s Diversity Champions programme while the Department for Work and Pensions paid ￡11,440.00 to Stonewall over five years for membership of the same programme, but left in April 2022.
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