The head of the civil service’s largest union has accused Whitehall of ‘racist institutional bias’, claiming that white civil servants were twice as likely to be promoted than non-white colleagues.
In a letter to Cabinet Office permanent secretary Alex Chisholm, Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Mark Serwotka said data showed a “consistent pattern” over 14 months where white staff were more likely to get promoted.
The letter, seen by The Times, accused civil service bosses of denying the organisation was institutionally biased.
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It claimed that last year nearly one in 10 (9.8%) civil servants said they had faced discrimination because of their ethnicity, up from 4.6% in 2012.
Serwotka wrote: “The service, along with organisations such as the Metropolitan Police resist the notion that it is institutionally biased.
“However, if the differences in promotion rates are not driven by racism, what is the explanation? If you cannot provide a plausible alternative explanation, then the civil service must admit there is bias in the system.”
Serwotka, who is set to retire next year, said there was a “wholly broken system” in recruitment across the civil service, and that in the Cabinet Office “little or nothing has been achieved and racism still remains a major issue”.
The newspaper previously reported that an internal review by the Cabinet Office found that civil servants who bullied, harassed or racially discriminated against co-workers did not face disciplinary action.
Speaking at the public administration and constitutional affairs committee this month, Chisholm said the department had accepted all of the review’s 61 recommendations, but said while there some were “quick wins”, implementing others “will take a longer period of time”.
Former business secretary Alok Sharma recently denied allegations that he had bullied civil servants, while Dominic Raab resigned as deputy prime minister in April in the wake of allegations that he had created a “culture of fear” in government departments.
A government spokesman told The Times: “We are committed to ensuring that the civil service reflects the country it serves at all levels. We’ve already seen a significant rise in representation of different backgrounds and locations, with the representation of ethnic minority civil servants at a record high.
“We are not complacent and continue to make reforms to how the civil service recruits and promotes talent to raise representation at the most senior levels, for example – a record quarter of all fast-stream applicants came from an ethnic minority background last year.”
Meanwhile, lawyers investigating the Horizon IT scandal have found the Post Office used a racist term to categorise black workers.
Documents published between 2008 and 2011, obtained via a freedom of information request, showed that fraud investigators were asked to group suspects based on racial features. The categories on the document include ‘Chinese/Japanese types’, ‘Dark Skinned European Types’ and ‘Negroid Types’ – an archaic and offensive term that refers to people of African descent.
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A Post Office spokesperson said: “Post Office does not tolerate racism in any shape or form. The language used in this historic document is completely abhorrent and condemned by today’s Post Office. We fully support investigations into Post Office’s past wrongdoings and believe the Horizon IT Inquiry will help ensure today’s Post Office has the confidence of its Postmasters and the communities it supports.”
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