Mick Hartley

Oh boy. From the Spectator:

For many years now, the Treasury has run its own talent scheme for highflying graduates. As you’d expect, given the department’s role in managing the nation’s finances, the application process has tested for numerical reasoning. While the programme recruits for policy advisers, rather than economic specialists, you need a least some mathematical ability to understand the department’s often complex financial and economic policies.

But then came 2020, the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and the subsequent mental breakdown of the British state. The Treasury’s response to the death of a man in a completely different country, it appears, was to remove the numerical reasoning test from its graduate scheme. After The Spectator submitted a freedom of information request to the department, it explained that following a review of the 2019 scheme:

‘The Numerical Reasoning Test (NRT) was removed due to evidence of the test having adverse impact on candidate diversity. Subsequently, the levels of adverse impact decreased in the 2020 campaign.’

The department’s board minutes explained specifically that the test was removed because, ‘We want more diverse ethnicity at assessment centre’ and ‘having two tests creates an additional “hurdle” for candidates to jump over and another opportunity for candidates to be sifted out of the process.’ You would think that the entire point of an application process is to reduce the number of candidates until you have the most able people left. The Treasury, it seems, does not agree.

So here we are: boldly breaking the stranglehold of competence in the civil service.