The government is making noises, as it often likes to do, about clamping down on public sector woke wastage. New guidance to civil servants instructs them to “cease all external Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion spend in the Civil Service unless signed off and cleared by Ministers.” This comes as research by the TaxPayers’ Alliance today reveals spending has more than doubled in the last four years on “staff networks”, which take up civil servants’ time and waste taxpayer funds on events. Examples include Black History Month’s “All about hair – an insight to afro-textured hair” – hosted by the DVLA…

£652,000 in taxpayer cash has been spent by quangos on these networks since 2020 and the amount of staff time taken up by their running is equivalent to around 80 average full-time employees. Transport for London is the worst offender with a total of £120,000 spent and 140 events hosted, followed by the House of Commons at £96,000. £104,248 in taxpayer cash was spent in 2019/20 – that’s now ballooned to £229,767. If this trend continues, by 2040 these networks will cost the taxpayer approximately £2,511,610 annually…

The actual cost is likely to be higher. HMRC admits it does “not ask that colleagues centrally report time spent engaging with Staff Diversity Networks”, so staff time spent on them remains untracked. New figures this week reveal trust in the civil service has fallen by 6% in a year. Guido wonders if the two might be connected…