Recommendation 14

We asked SROs about the diversity of their programme boards, which could help establish an effective, open and constructive environment. For Universal Credit, the SRO explained how, over time, the Board had included women and men in almost equal number fulfilling different roles, alongside representatives from HM Treasury, the IPA and a local authority. For electronic monitoring, the SRO described the Programme Board as representative of HM Prison & Probation Service but recognised that this did not equate to being representative of society at large.47 We also asked the IPA and HM Treasury about diversity within their respective organisations. IPA said it has quite a diverse team, both in terms of cognitive diversity and background. HM Treasury agreed that it is similarly diverse in terms of background although officials tended to have a more policy experience. 36 C&AG’s Report, para 13 37 Qq 111–114 38 Q 69 39 Q 99; C&AG’s Report, Universal Credit: progress update, Session 2014–15, HC 786, 26 November 2014 40 Qq 73–75, 79, 90 41 C&AG’s Report, para 16 42 Q 17 43 Qq 16 44 Qq 9, 10, 91, 93 45 Qq 76–77 46 Qq 16, 19 47 Qq 70–72 12 Resetting government programmes HM Treasury set out that across its public spending work, around 50%, or maybe even more, were female. We commented, however, that there still seemed to be some way to go on ethnic diversity.48