Recommendation 20

Good governance involves groups that are diverse and represent a wide range of people and opinions. There has also been recent criticism of the lack of diversity in the civil service, a problem which is clearly apparent when looking at public appointments. When asked, the Cabinet Office could not set out a clear plan for how it would improve the diversity of public appointments. The Cabinet Office has committed to developing a new website for public appointments and a new application tracking system. It expects the new 34 Qq 18–19 35 Q 16 36 Committee of Public Accounts, Challenges in using data across government, One Hundred and Eighteenth Report of Session 2017–19, HC 2492, 25 September 2019 37 C&AG’s report, para 1.13 38 Q 21 39 Qq 66, 64 40 Committee of Public Accounts, Department’s oversight of arm’s-length bodies, Twenty-first Report of Session 2016–17, HC 488, 21 October 2016 41 Q 65 42 C&AG’s report, Figure 18 43 Q 69 C&AG’s report, para 3.15 44 Q 75 14 Government’s delivery through arm’s-length bodies system will make it easier to provide support to applicants and to compare data between departments, including the length of time appointments take. It did not say whether this system would also capture diversity data.45 45 Qq 73, 75 Government’s delivery through arm’s-length bodies 15