08 October 2004
The civil service needs to do a lot more to drive forward the diversity agenda, its new equality champion warned this week.
Whitehall's new key adviser on diversity, Waqar Azmi, who took up his post on October 1, said it was crucial that government departments recognised the value of the different contributions people make.
He said: 'Diversity is about more than achieving a workforce that represents all of our communities. It is also about valuing people from different backgrounds with diverse skills and experiences, and it is about embedding cultural and behavioural change.'
Azmi was an adviser to the Zahid Mubarek inquiry, which investigated the events leading to the murder of an Asian teenager who was put in a cell with a known violent racist in Feltham Young Offenders' Institute in 2000.
Previously Azmi was the head of equality and diversity at TMP Worldwide, a human resources business, and has also been chief executive of Worcestershire Racial Equality.
He said of his appointment: 'Through my experience in both the public and commercial sectors, I have learned the critical value of diversity in organisations. Our civil service has to be a thought and practice leader and a beacon for change and leading-edge best practice for everyone.
'A truly representative civil service workforce, including at the most senior levels, will enable policies and services to be developed in ways which result in better outcomes for everyone in society, and will enable us to work with all communities more effectively.'
Cabinet secretary Sir Andrew Turnbull said Azmi's role would be vital in supporting departments' progress towards new targets for increasing representation of women, people from ethnic minorities and disabled people at senior levels in the civil service. These were announced as part of the 2004 Spending Review.
Turnbull added: 'Increasing diversity across the civil service is crucial to us. An open and diverse civil service enables us to achieve excellence in policy development and service delivery.'
Azmi replaces Museji Ahmed Takolia, who has left Whitehall for the private sector.
No 10 press chief refutes bullying claim
The permanent secretary in charge of Whitehall communications, Howell James, has dismissed reports that staff at the prime minister's office in Downing Street had bullied government communications chiefs.
He was responding to newspaper articles in which government press officers claimed they were being forced to make headline-grabbing announcements before ministers had finalised their policies.
In a statement issued last week, James said: 'The story contains partial quotes and a complete lack of context that does not reflect the discussion.'
In a set of leaked minutes, press officers were also said to have complained about having to suppress awkward facts.
The Cabinet Office said a secretary has been arrested on suspicion of theft of documents, following an inquiry into the leak.
A source told Public Finance that the leak had hit the communications people hard, damaging a concerted effort to rebuild trust in Whitehall and with the press.
He said: 'There were certain comments made about being forced to engineer stories to make the news but this leak is seen more as an attempt to undermine the work of James, who has been brought in to refocus how things are done.'
PCS ballots members for strike action over job losses
Members of the Public and Commercial Services union were being balloted this week on whether to strike over job cuts.
Almost 300,000 civil servants will vote on a campaign of industrial action against plans to cut 100,000 jobs. If members vote in favour, the strike action will be the biggest for more than a decade.
Mark Serwotka, the union's general secretary, said: 'Members are angry to be faced with such damaging and arbitrary cuts, anger which will only be compounded if plans to raise the pension age get the green light.
He added: 'When all around are seeking to cut with little thought of the damaging impact it will have – as the axe begins to fall, we as a union are taking a stand.'
If approved by the vote, the strike will take place on November 5.
The PCS's hearing in the High Court over the Department for Work and Pensions' disputed performance pay plan has been deferred to November 25–26 to avoid a clash with the possible strike.
PFoct2004
