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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether he plans to introduce a civil service wide socio-economic background census.

Matthew Hancock

On 24 March, we published our 2016 Talent Action Plan for the Civil Service. As well as providing a progress update, it sets out how we will increase social mobility in the Civil Service.

We are making a specific commitment that the Civil Service will lead the way, working with major employers and organisations promoting social mobility, to develop a national set of measures of socio-economic background for employers.

The Civil Service will use these to measure the socio-economic background of its workforce, starting with the Senior Civil Service, the Fast Stream, apprenticeship starts and applicants to our corporate talent programmes.

The 2016 Talent Action Plan is available at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/talent-action-plan-2016-removing-the-barriers-to-success

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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, whether the Summer Diversity Internship Programme weekly training allowance is taxed.

Matthew Hancock

We have been working closely with the Civil Service Commission to provide a mechanism for fast tracking those who have been on the internship to the Fast Stream assessment centre, based on positive appraisal of the intern’s placement performance and completion of the initial internship selection testing.

This initiative is therefore for interns who are successful during the internship programme and we are currently working through the implementation plan.

In the last 5 years 778 have undertaken the programme (2011 – 73; 2012 – 115; 2013 – 161; 2014 – 173; 2015 – 256), with a further 300 anticipated this year. The estimated conversion rate into Fast Stream is 10-15%. Accurate tracking of success into Fast Stream will be achievable for 2016, using an updated applicant tracking approach.

A number of criteria are used to measure socio-economic status, however the metric that is now used to designate lower socio-economic background is parental occupation (aligning with Office of National Statistics methodology). This approach is currently under review following a recent social mobility research study by the Bridge Group.

This internship allowance is taxable and the amount of tax paid will depend on which tax code the intern is put on before they start.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the eligibility criteria are for the Summer Diversity Internship Programme for socially or economically disadvantaged groups.

Matthew Hancock

We have been working closely with the Civil Service Commission to provide a mechanism for fast tracking those who have been on the internship to the Fast Stream assessment centre, based on positive appraisal of the intern’s placement performance and completion of the initial internship selection testing.

This initiative is therefore for interns who are successful during the internship programme and we are currently working through the implementation plan.

In the last 5 years 778 have undertaken the programme (2011 – 73; 2012 – 115; 2013 – 161; 2014 – 173; 2015 – 256), with a further 300 anticipated this year. The estimated conversion rate into Fast Stream is 10-15%. Accurate tracking of success into Fast Stream will be achievable for 2016, using an updated applicant tracking approach.

A number of criteria are used to measure socio-economic status, however the metric that is now used to designate lower socio-economic background is parental occupation (aligning with Office of National Statistics methodology). This approach is currently under review following a recent social mobility research study by the Bridge Group.

This internship allowance is taxable and the amount of tax paid will depend on which tax code the intern is put on before they start.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many people have participated in the Summer Diversity Internship Programme since its inception; and how many of those participants have subsequently been accepted onto the Civil Service Fast Stream.

Matthew Hancock

We have been working closely with the Civil Service Commission to provide a mechanism for fast tracking those who have been on the internship to the Fast Stream assessment centre, based on positive appraisal of the intern’s placement performance and completion of the initial internship selection testing.

This initiative is therefore for interns who are successful during the internship programme and we are currently working through the implementation plan.

In the last 5 years 778 have undertaken the programme (2011 – 73; 2012 – 115; 2013 – 161; 2014 – 173; 2015 – 256), with a further 300 anticipated this year. The estimated conversion rate into Fast Stream is 10-15%. Accurate tracking of success into Fast Stream will be achievable for 2016, using an updated applicant tracking approach.

A number of criteria are used to measure socio-economic status, however the metric that is now used to designate lower socio-economic background is parental occupation (aligning with Office of National Statistics methodology). This approach is currently under review following a recent social mobility research study by the Bridge Group.

This internship allowance is taxable and the amount of tax paid will depend on which tax code the intern is put on before they start.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Louise Haigh on 2016-03-21.

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what recent progress his Department has made on allowing interns who successfully complete the Summer Diversity Internship Programme to pass straight to the Fast Stream assessment centre on the basis of having successfully completed that internship.

Matthew Hancock

We have been working closely with the Civil Service Commission to provide a mechanism for fast tracking those who have been on the internship to the Fast Stream assessment centre, based on positive appraisal of the intern’s placement performance and completion of the initial internship selection testing.

This initiative is therefore for interns who are successful during the internship programme and we are currently working through the implementation plan.

In the last 5 years 778 have undertaken the programme (2011 – 73; 2012 – 115; 2013 – 161; 2014 – 173; 2015 – 256), with a further 300 anticipated this year. The estimated conversion rate into Fast Stream is 10-15%. Accurate tracking of success into Fast Stream will be achievable for 2016, using an updated applicant tracking approach.

A number of criteria are used to measure socio-economic status, however the metric that is now used to designate lower socio-economic background is parental occupation (aligning with Office of National Statistics methodology). This approach is currently under review following a recent social mobility research study by the Bridge Group.

This internship allowance is taxable and the amount of tax paid will depend on which tax code the intern is put on before they start.