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  "path": "/politics/treasury-scrapped-maths-test-candidates",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30T21:06:14.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.gbnews.com",
  "tags": [
    "'Woke' row erupts as UK set for first ever LGBTQ exclusive housing complex",
    "Another UK university 'goes woke' as 'potty' Lancaster votes to transition to 100% plant-based catering by 2027",
    "Trafalgar Square 'goes woke' as fourth plinth taken over by artwork aiming to 'unite trans community around the world'",
    "Treasury employee told GB News diversity and inclusion policies triggered a \"mass exodus\"",
    "The GB News Editorial Charter"
  ],
  "textContent": "\n\n\nThe Treasury ditched maths tests for candidates after officials came to the conclusion they had an adverse effect on candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds.\n\nNewly released documents show officials remove the assessment to increase diversity following a review of the department’s 2019 graduate recruitment campaign.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe documents suggest the \"numerical reasoning test (NRT) was removed due to evidence of the test having adverse impact on candidate diversity\".\n\nIt was later added the \"adverse impact\" had fallen after the assessment was dropped in the 2020 recruitment campaign, reports The Spectator.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nTRENDING\n\nStories\n\nVideos\n\nYour Say\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAccording to documents revealed in a Freedom of Information request, minutes of a Treasury board meeting stated the department had expressed an interest in getting \"more diverse ethnicities at assessment centre\".\n\nThe Treasury had also pinpointed numerical reasoning as a stage at which proportionally fewer ethnic minority candidates progressed.\n\nIn 2019, officials increased the number of candidates passing an earlier situational judgement test in an effort to \"maximise the number of diverse candidates in our process\".\n\nAnd n 2023, the department allowed more candidates through the initial sift due to increased applications, as raising the benchmark posed a risk of reducing diversity among those progressing.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nInternal papers said the department later removed verbal reasoning tests as well.\n\nDocuments suggested these tests had much more of an \"adverse impact on ethnicity” than numerical tests.\n\nOfficials cited advice from Rare, a recruitment consultancy, that candidates from ethnic minority backgrounds tended to struggle more with verbal testing.\n\nIn 2024, the verbal assessment was replaced by the Civil Service Work Strengths Test, which ditches testing verbal reasoning directly, instead asking candidates to respond to statements about their preferred ways of working and personal behaviour.\n\n### LATEST DEVELOPMENTS\n\n\n\n\n  * 'Woke' row erupts as UK set for first ever LGBTQ exclusive housing complex\n  * Another UK university 'goes woke' as 'potty' Lancaster votes to transition to 100% plant-based catering by 2027\n  * Trafalgar Square 'goes woke' as fourth plinth taken over by artwork aiming to 'unite trans community around the world'\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nAn HM Treasury spokesman told The Times: \"It is complete nonsense to suggest that we have lowered our hiring standards for the sake of diversity.”\n\n\"We are proud that we employ people from a wide range of backgrounds, while maintaining rigorous, merit-based recruitment to ensure that we have the very best people developing and delivering economic policy.\"\n\nIt comes after a former Treasury employee told GB News diversity and inclusion policies triggered a \"mass exodus\" of employees from a Whitehall watchdog.\n\nThe National Audit Office (NAO) is responsible for the oversight of public spending across government departments and agencies, including the BBC and the NHS.\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n###\n\n\n\n\nThe whistleblower, who wished to remain anonymous due to mistrust of the NAO, worked at the institution when the policies were introduced in around 2020.\n\nThey told the People's Channel \"It just sort of went into complete overdrive and they had such a huge overreaction to this, and they seemed very captured and obsessed. I was astonished.\n\n\"It was quite a bizarre thing to witness and see and hear about and experience.\n\nThe insider source also said it was \"insulting\" to the diversity hires, claiming they knew they were \"just there to bump up their quotas and make them look inclusive\".\n\nIn response, a NAO spokesman told GB News: \"We do not recognise this account. The details of our Diversity and Inclusion strategy are available on our website.\"\n\n###\n\n\n\n\n**Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter**",
  "title": "Treasury scrapped maths test for candidates in order to boost diversity"
}