Overview
- Freedom of Information minutes released late June show Treasury officials concluded a Numerical Reasoning Test had an adverse impact on ethnic-minority applicants and recommended removing it to increase diversity at assessment centres.
- The department removed the numeracy test for the 2020 graduate campaign and later dropped verbal reasoning in 2024 after advisers including Rare said verbal tests produced larger adverse effects.
- Officials replaced the assessments with the Civil Service Work/Strengths Test, which asks about behavioural preferences rather than directly testing maths or verbal reasoning.
- HM Treasury says its internal analysis showed adverse impact fell and candidate diversity rose after the changes and insists it did not lower hiring standards.
- The disclosures have produced sustained political criticism from Tory and Reform figures calling for a reversal or review, and the issue now faces continued scrutiny with no reported policy reversal to date.