Million civil service days ‘wasted on diversity training’

ONE MILLION civil service days a year are wasted on “equality and diversity” training, a report has found.

This costs the taxpayer an estimated £150 million a year, according to research by Conservative Way Forward (CWF), a think tank.

It includes 24 days a year spent by the Intellectual Property Office on the “respect at work boardgame” and almost 1,500 staff days by the London Fire Brigade on equality training.

The report also reveals that public sector organisations employ 10,000 members of staff to deal with issues exclusively focused on “equality, diversity, and inclusivity” (EDI).

These roles set the taxpayer back £427 million a year and the average EDI employee receives an annual salary of £42,000 – compared with the average nurse’s salary of £34,000, it says.

It points out that taxpayers now face their highest burden since the Second World War, yet millions of pounds from the public purse is spent on “damaging and politically motivated activities”.

The group’s research is based on an audit of government accounts and freedom of information requests to 6,000 public bodies, covering spending on EDI initiatives in government, armslength organisations and contractors including the company building the HS2 high-speed rail link.

Billions are spent on diversity initiatives by quangos including contributions to a campaign on “unlearning whiteness” by the publicly funded Arts Council.

The CWF research also highlights the 397 councils across the UK that employ between them 794 EDI staff with an average annual cost of £67,000.

It comes as Jeremy Hunt faces a rebellion from 40 Conservative MPS over £7billion of government spending on “woke” projects.

Their letter criticises the spending of “more public money in 2023 and 2024 than at any point since the mid-1970s”.

Whitehall sources said Mr Hunt would consider these findings as part of an efficiency review he announced in last month’s Autumn Statement.

The CWF group, a Thatcherite think tank, was relaunched by Steve Baker, the Conservative MP, in August.

A Treasury spokesman said: “Value for money remains paramount for the Treasury.”