The Civil Service recruiting people who have committed serious offences in the name of equality and diversity is sheer MADNESS, says Philip Davies

When people have been spouting from the equality and diversity bible and proclaiming that organisations, businesses and politicians need to “reflect the community”, I have often said that if they want to be truly representative then they should include some criminals as they make up some of the community too.

Unbelievably, it seems the powers that be at the Civil Service have taken this to heart. If you have a look at the Civil Service’s recruitment site it says: “We welcome applications from recent prison leavers or those with an unspent conviction.

“The Civil Service recognises the benefits of a diverse workforce. We want to create an inclusive working environment that attracts the best talent and makes the most of potential skills.”

Using the phrase “prison leavers” might sound better than “criminals whose offending was so serious to get them sent to prison in this day and age” – but they are one and the same.

Just to cement this position elsewhere they say: “…the Civil Service is drawing on the diverse range of talents and life-experiences representative of all our communities.”

Yet not only are they welcoming these former criminals but, on their whole recruitment page dedicated to “prison leavers”, it says that there was even a target for recruiting 1,000 of them into Civil Service roles by the end of 2023.

It is quite clear that the Civil Service has been, will be and actively wants to be recruiting people who have committed serious offences in the name of equality and diversity and I am sure that I will not be alone in thinking this is sheer madness.

As far as I am concerned, it is one thing to say that having a conviction will not necessarily be a bar to joining the Civil Service in all cases.

However, in this topsy-turvy world we live in, the Civil Service are actually going out of their way to particularly welcome applications from people with convictions – including those who have been sent to prison for undoubtedly serious crimes.

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The Civil Service website does, however, point out that there are a few exemptions. If someone’s conviction relates to arson, a sexual offence or a terror offence they will not be accepted.

They also apparently rule out anyone who has been given a life sentence – I would have thought that the clue should be in the title on that one.

Yet, naturally, because the Civil Service is riddled with this politically correct nonsense – you are, of course, not welcome if you have committed a so-called hate offence.

So, it seems to me, if you were to call someone something which landed you with a fine for a “hate” crime you would have no chance of getting into the Civil Service.

On the other hand, if you had burgled an old person’s home, raked in thousands of pounds in fraudulent benefit claims, stabbed someone and wounded them or committed a whole host of other violent offences – then that would appear to be fine!

What is also troubling is that it seems any such employees can keep their conviction a secret from their colleagues once they have got the job.

Not only will their colleagues not know about their criminal past but when I asked Parliamentary Questions of all departments about the number of staff with a criminal conviction none, bar one, could tell me.

So none of us know just how many criminals have been employed by the Civil Service.

It seems bizarre to me that the civil service have set a target of recruiting 1000 convicted criminals, but claim they don’t know how many they have employed. How can that be the case?

However, one thing that we can be sure of is that thanks to this ludicrous approach in pursuit of politically correct ideals, there will definitely be more convicted criminals employed in the civil service than most sensible people will think there should be.