Away from Jeremy Hunt’s launch of a public sector productivity task force last night, Guido understands the crackdown on wasteful equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) spending across Whitehall is motoring ahead, with a full action plan expected to be unveiled at the autumn statement. As Guido reported in January, 40 Tory MPs signed a letter telling Hunt to take action after Conservative Way Forward revealed “politically motivated campaigns” were costing the taxpayer more than £7 billion a year. Treasury sources told Guido the Chancellor had taken the report “really seriously”…

An internal Treasury memo shows Hunt’s expecting to make an “ambitious and credible” announcement at the despatch box after the review is complete:

“The review should provide an overview of the spending and impact of EDI work in the Civil Service, probably through a survey and an internal report of the findings, with a view to making action-orientated recommendations. The expertise of the CO in this area will ensure that questions asked, and analysis of the answers, will give government a transparent picture of what we are spending, whether it works, and produce an ambitious and credible announcement for the fiscal event. The main output I anticipate is an announcement of our findings and the actions we plan to take, so this short and focused exercise should be a considerably simpler ask than a full-blown independent review with a published report and recommendations to implement.”

These reviews, promises, and actions plans have cropped up before to no avail. Sajid Javid, as Health Secretary, finally vowed to limit the dozens of NHS diversity manager jobs, yet new vacancies still seem to appear every day or so. Hunt thinks this should be a “considerably simpler task” than a full-blown review. Guido will believe it when he sees it…