North Yorkshire Police spends more than half a million pounds a year on equality, diversity and inclusion, a freedom of information request has revealed.

UK police forces are legally obliged to implement policies on EDI. The 2011 public sector equality duty requires public bodies to eliminate unlawful discrimination and advance equality of opportunity between different groups.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel Development says “promoting and delivering EDI in the workplace is an essential aspect of good people management” but the issue has been in the spotlight this year.

In January, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order putting all US government staff employed in diversity, equity and inclusion on paid administrative leave.

Reform UK chairman Zia Yusuf told the BBC last weekend it would target spending on EDI as part of its plans to reduce waste in the 10 councils where it has a majority after last week’s local elections.

The freedom of information request revealed North Yorkshire Police employs nine staff in EDI posts. Eight are uniformed officers and one is a non-uniformed staff member.

The force said the total cost of these posts for 2024-25 was £549,598, which equates to an average of £61,066 per post.

However, it refused to give an individual breakdown of each post’s cost because it said “personal information can only be disclosed to the individual concerned”.

The freedom of information request also asked how many of the posts are filled by ethnic minority applicants and what is the number and cost of external training bodies and courses for equality and diversity training.

North Yorkshire Police said three of the posts are filled by ethnic minority applicants and that it used two external training bodies in 2024-25 at a cost of £15,875.