You asked about the Oxbridge background of Senior Civil Servants by Department.
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It is a common theme to criticise the senior civil service for being largely men drawn from upper middle class families and educated at private schools and Oxbridge. This characterisation is, however, based on statistics that are, at best, patchy and often out of date.
Parliamentary questions on this subject generally receive answers that information on the university background of officials is not held or available.
The following pieces together the most recent figures I have found.
Recruitment to the Senior Civil Service
The Cabinet Office publishes data for its annual fast-stream competition (this is the graduate entry scheme to the civil service described by the Cabinet Office as "a training and development programme for some of the country's most talented graduates, selected on the basis of their potential to reach the Senior Civil Service and become the leaders of the future." The latest figures are for 2006. These show around 14% of applications for entry into the civil service fast stream were from individual with an Oxbridge background - just under 40% of those recommended for appointment were from Oxbridge.
These proportions vary from year to year. The proportion of Oxbridge applicants appears to have risen in 2004, although this may have been at least in part due to the introduction of a new on-line self assessment which the Cabinet Office say "proved an effective mechanism for discouraging unrealistic applications". The proportion of those with an Oxbridge background recommended for appointment was lower than in some recent years (it dips around a bit!), but not significantly different from cohorts 10 years earlier. Indeed the 39% Oxbridge in 2006 was higher than in 1996 (36%) and 1997 (34%). (Source: Cabinet Office Graduate Fast Stream Diversity Trends http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/reports/faststream/2007/diversity.aspx, Civil Service Fast Stream Recruitment Report 1997/8)
Senior Civil Servants
There are no routinely available statistics on the Oxbridge background of civil servants or senior civil servants. An academic study reported unpublished Cabinet Office figures for 2003 showing across Whitehall 26% of senior civil servants with a known background were from Oxbridge. The proportion rises with grade (Grade 1 is the lowest SCS band) so that 48% of those in Grade 3 were found to have an Oxbridge background:
Keating & Cairney Politicians and Civil Servants in Scotland Parliamentary Affairs Vol 59/2006
Other work by the same authors suggests the Permanent Secretary figure in this table may understate the actual Oxbridge. Their analysis of the position in 2004, based largely on Who's Who entries for Permanent Secretary heads of Whitehall departments shows 71% with an Oxbridge background.
Departmental Data
Figures for individual departments are patchier.
The FCO reported that 50% of their Fast Stream intake in 2006 was from Oxbridge (HC Deb 19 Jun 2007 : Column 1605W http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200607/cmhansrd/cm070619/text/70619w0003.htm#07061962000116) This figure was lower than the 65% in 1998, but higher than in 2004 (40%) and 2005 (44%)
63% of the Treasury's Senior Civil Servants are reported to have graduated from Oxford or Cambridge (2003) [Keating & Cairney op cit]
Richard Cracknell (Social Statistics - HC Library)
Tel: 0207-219-4632