The Civil Service spent more than £27million on equality, diversity and inclusion staff and projects in a year.
The first full audit of ‘Whitehall wokery’ reveals that hundreds of equalities staff are employed by the Government on average salaries of £53,000.
A government review of departments and quangos found that there are 380 full-time staff dedicated to ‘equality, diversity, and inclusion’ within the Civil Service, amounting to a salary cost of £20 million.
The report, coming from the Cabinet Office, also disclosed the existence of 570 diversity networks with a total of 2,965 committee members. These networks incurred a cost of £534,000 in the fiscal year 2022/23, funded by taxpayers.
The £27million figure includes spending on away days and membership of equalities organisations, the research commissioned by the Tories showed.
This amount would pay for the winter fuel payments of 135,000 pensioners, or fund more than 1,000 nurses.
While EDI staff are supposed to ensure diversity in the Civil Service, they have been criticised for promoting unproven claims on gender and race.
They also spent £800,000 on ‘external benchmarking’ and membership of organisations such as the controversial LGBT charity Stonewall.
The Civil Service spent more than £27million on equality, diversity and inclusion staff and projects in a year (Stock image)
There are currently around 515,000 full-time equivalent posts in the civil service, which is up from around 380,000 in June 2016
The report came as it emerged the Government is planning to get rid of about 50,000 Civil Service posts, with ministers urged to go even further.
It has been suggested by officials that approximately 10% of these roles could be eliminated by the year 2030 as part of efforts by Rachel Reeves and Sir Keir Starmer to reduce the overall size of the government.
There are currently about 515,000 full-time equivalent posts in the Civil Service, which is up from around 380,000 in June 2016.
An official briefed on negotiations over Ms Reeves’s spending review told the Financial Times: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if the number comes down to 450,000 by 2030.’
But a report published today by the Policy Exchange think-tank and backed by a former senior mandarin sets out how 80,000 Civil Service jobs could be cut to save £5billion a year.
The report recommends a 60 per cent cut in communications, a 50 per cent cut in HR and suggests removing ‘excessive layers of management’.
However, it urges the Government to balance the cuts with pay rises for the most senior roles, and a reform to the pension system to allow staff to take a pay rise of 10 per cent in return for a reduction in employer pension contributions.
The document argues the plan would deliver savings of about £5billion per year including future pension savings, compared with £2billion.
The size of the civil service has ballooned over recent years following the Brexit referendum and the Covid pandemic
Sir Keir (pictured) recently outlined his ambition to reform what he described as an ‘overcautious and flabby’ state
The report’s author, former Home Office and Cabinet Office director Stephen Webb, said: ‘Ministers have recognised early on the problems in the system, and have set out plans to make reductions of £1.5billion by the end of the Parliament.
They can go further than this and faster – we believe £5billion reductions in one to two years is deliverable.’
Sir Keir recently outlined his ambition to reform what he described as an ‘overcautious and flabby’ state.
A Government spokesman said: ‘We don’t comment on speculation ahead of the spending review.’
