Exposed: Whitehall’s 500-strong army of diversity enforcers may cost upwards of £28million

At least 500 civil servants are employed across the Government to police and develop diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) policies, reports The Telegraph.

In some Whitehall departments, the number of staff overseeing equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT, or race policies has doubled in the past year since Labour came to power.

The figures have only been extracted from Whitehall after a two-year battle by MP Neil O’Brien, who used freedom of information (FOI) laws and parliamentary questions to counter attempts by officials and ministers to block the release of the figures.

The numbers are an underestimate, as some departments have still refused to answer.

MoD employs 77 DEI staff

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) alone employs 77 staff with job titles that include the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT, and race. This is ostensibly the biggest number employed in any single Whitehall department, barring the Cabinet Office, which has a central co-ordinating role for DEI policies.

Office for Equality and Opportunity sees surge in staff numbers

There are now 180 staff in the Office for Equality and Opportunity – formerly the Equality Hub – which leads Government policy in this area and is based in the Cabinet Office.

This compares with just 28 staff that it admitted it employed with DEI, gender, LGBT, or race in job titles as of December 2023. Outside of the Cabinet Office’s central equality teams, there are around 330 DEI staff, bringing the known total to 510.

Mr O’Brien, a shadow minister appointed by Kemi Badenoch to the key role of policy renewal and development, said the apparent surge in the number of DEI posts was a waste of taxpayers’ money just as Britons were about to be asked in the Budget to pay more taxes.

Assuming an average salary of £55,000 for each civil servant with a DEI or similar role, the pay bill for the 510 staff would be at least £28.1 million a year. Mr O’Brien added that their roles further increased costs, because the policies they produced then required other civil servants to spend time working out how to comply with them.

Labour ministers accused of blocking data release

Mr O’Brien has asked each Government department and key agencies how many staff they have with job titles including the words equality, diversity, inclusion, gender, LGBT, and race.

The MoD promised the data in a written answer under the last Government but, after the election of Sir Keir Starmer, Mr O’Brien said the department refused. He extracted the figure of 77 via FOI requests and appeals.

Departments see increase in DEI staff numbers

The data revealed 180 staff in the Office for Equality and Opportunity, including 63 working centrally, 18 working on LGBT policy, 19 on equality, 20 on social mobility, 23 on women’s equality, 25 in the disability unit, and 12 in the race equality unit.

The number of DEI staff increased in several departments, including the Department for Transport, Home Office, HS2 Ltd, Department of Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT), DWP, education department, and Environment Agency.

A government source defended the diversity, equality, and inclusion roles, saying they include teams working on critical issues such as ending violence against women and girls, breaking down barriers to work for disabled people, and improving workplace support for women experiencing menopause.

The source accused the Tories of hypocrisy, pointing out that they presided over a massive expansion of the state and hired 130,000 extra civil servants despite promising to do the opposite.

Tories slam “woke ideology” and call for value for money

Mr O’Brien, however, maintained his stance, saying: “The fact that so many Labour ministers have tried to block the release of these figures at every turn shows that they know voters don’t support these waste of money non-jobs.

“But rather than do what voters want and deliver value for money, Labour have prioritised funding woke ideology. When Rachel Reeves hikes our taxes it will be this kind of rubbish that hard working people will be paying extra for.”

The debate over the role and number of diversity, equality, and inclusion staff in government departments is likely to continue as Labour and the Tories clash over the value and necessity of these positions.

While Labour defends the roles as essential for addressing critical social issues, the Tories argue that they represent a waste of taxpayers’ money and a prioritization of “woke ideology” over delivering value for money to the public.