Buckingham Palace drops diversity chief idea despite low diversity among staff

Buckingham Palace has scrapped its plans of appointing a diversity chief to evaluate its policies.

According to a new financial report, the plans of recruiting someone for the position have indefinitely been shelved.

This was confirmed through the 2020-2021 Sovereign Grant Report, which disclosed for the first time the exact proportion of ethnic minority staffers employed by the Palace.

Per the report, Clarence House, Prince Charles and Camilla’s household had only eight percent employees from ethnic minority groups.

On the other hand, Prince William and Kate Middleton’s household, Kensington Palace refused to share the statistics. Per, a source, however, it was revealed that their percentage was the lowest amongst all.

A palace source told BAZAAR.com: “Her Majesty and the royal family have promoted and embraced the diversity of our nation and that of the Commonwealth, and we recognize that our own workforce needs to reflect the communities we serve.”

“We recognize we are not where we would like to be and that despite all our efforts to target recruitment, train managers, and build an inclusive workplace, the results have not been what we would like,” added the source.

Political commentator and author Shola Mos-Shogbamimu told the outlet: “The decision to no longer hire a diversity chief at Buckingham Palace speaks for itself and evidently pays lip service to a commitment to diversity they have zero intention of radically implementing.”

“If in 2021, the monarchy does not see it must evolve on the issues of race, racism, and race inclusion, it must be brought subject to the same laws and consequences the rest of us are subject to. … The royal household cannot be expected to regulate itself on racism and race inclusion. No public institution should. The monarchy work for us, and I want them held to account when they do wrong,” said Mos-Shogbamimu.