President Trump has been hard at work scrapping diversity courses stateside and international companies have followed suit – with Goldman Sachs and Deloitte some of the latest corporations to bin off their inclusion schemes. Whether the UK government will take a leaf out of Trump’s book is quite another matter, however. The Tories have called on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to ‘unshackle’ Britain from equality initiatives while Reform’s Rupert Lowe has been busy quizzing the government on their DEI spend in 2024 – which, Mr S can reveal, has taken a not insignificant sum from the public purse…
In 2024, more than £1,000 of taxpayer’s cash was splurged on average every month on diversity training schemes by government departments. In 2024, the Culture Department spent a whopping £6,600 on a sign language course for 12 staff while the Ministry of Justice splashed over £2,000 on DEI courses. The Department for Business and Trade also racked up costs of £2,000 on inclusion initiatives last year, while in September alone, the Attorney General’s office spent £2,500 on a discrimination course for all of, er, nine staff members – working out at £300 per person. Crikey. It’s hardly money well spent, eh?
A number of other departments were rather reluctant to reveal their diversity spend last year, however. The Department for Work and Pensions admitted it had spent almost £70,000 on ‘supporting employees with specific equality and diversity related training needs’ in the 23/24 financial year. The Department for Energy Security insisted it doesn’t ‘theme’ learning records by equality, diversity or inclusion labels while the Home Office protested that it would be too difficult to separate the costs of its diversity courses from a bigger package of training. While the Treasury and the Cabinet Office both stated they had spent nothing on DEI training in 2024, the Department of Science and Technology wouldn’t quite say the same – instead noting that the sum was less than £25,000. The Department for Transport also dodged the question, noting instead that it provides an online training course focusing on diversity, ‘Civil Service Expectations’, is ‘free at the point of delivery’.
As The Spectator’s cover piece revealed last week, there is a rather lot of frivolous spending occurring in Her Majesty’s government at the moment – and DEI courses are merely the tip of the iceberg. Will Starmer follow Trump’s lead and crack down on unnecessary costs? Watch this space…
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