To provide information on the roles within the organisation
Updated 30 April 2025
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ssac-foi-releases-2025/to-provide-information-on-the-roles-within-the-organisation
Date received: 28 February 2025
Date of response: 20 March 2025
Information request
I wish to make a freedom of information request and would be grateful if you could supply the following information within 20 working days:
1. The number of roles across all components of the organisation, expressed in numbers of full-time employees (FTE), that are mainly or exclusively focussed on issues of equality, diversity, or inclusivity. This information should encompass all staff employed by the organisation, regardless of their geographical location.
Roles meeting this description could include (amongst other guises) “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Officer” (EDI) or “Diversity and Inclusion Project Managers”. Please break down, if possible, the number of roles per component part of the department’s operations.
For all roles meeting this description, please also provide, in order of preference, either a) the salary of these roles, b) the pay band of these roles, or c) the combined total salary of these roles. Please provide the information that is most in accordance with your data processing practices.
Please also advise if the organisation has any plans to hire further staff in these areas within the next 18 months, and the roles/pay bands that they are likely to occupy.
2. With the same criteria as above, please provide the number of internal training courses attended by staff which pertain to the issues encompassed by equality, diversity or inclusivity. Please include the name of the courses, the number of attendees, and the duration of the course.
3. Please, if possible, provide details of any internal EDI practices and networks, including the number of individuals who are members of such networks.
4. Please provide details of any external contractors brought in by the organisation to conduct training, advice, or guidance on issues relating to EDI. Where applicable this should include costs and associated manhours.
5. Please provide details of how equality, diversity and inclusivity is included in your procurement practices, the relative weight afforded to these considerations, and the current value of contracts in which EDI considerations was a part of the procurement process.
Complying with all 5 questions should not exceed the statutory cost limit, but should you deem that it does, please then proceed with the request excluding those components that would result in the threshold being crossed. At the absolute minimum, I would expect that parts 1 – 4 should be answered.
Response
We do not hold the information you have requested. The Social Security Advisory Committee is a statutory independent non-departmental public body sponsored by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). The Committee’s statutory remit is to provide advice to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions on matters relating to social security. Schedule 5 of The Social Security Administration Act 1992 sets out the arrangements for the Committee’s resources. It is currently supported by a small secretariat of four members, all of whom are formally employed by the DWP.