What type of school did you attend? Are you a refugee? Civil servants to answer new set of job application questions

People 'always' say these kinds of measures are 'social engineering' but that is not true, says a social mobility expert

The 12 questions will be voluntary for hopeful job applicants to answer if they wish (Getty Images)

Job applicants could be asked where they went to school, what their parents do and even about housing in new questions aimed at bringing poorer candidates into high-status careers.

The Cabinet Office has drafted 12 questions which look into a candidate's background and socioeconomic status when they apply to the strongly competitive Civil Service, including whether someone is a refugee, a carer or have parents who own their own house.

The anonymised responses would be used to assess the diversity of Whitehall's workforce - frequently accused of being too white, male and privately-schooled - and would not be linked to an individual's application. The questions would also be answered only voluntarily.

When the proposals were first announced in May, Tory peer and headteacher of £33,000-a-year Eton College, William Waldegrave, threatened to quit the Tory party over measures he said would discriminate against the privately educated.

But David Johnston, chief executive at the Social Mobility Foundation, said such criticism was badly misplaced since hundreds of companies already kept a tab on the background and diversity of their workforces.

"Lord Waldegrave made the comments he did and suggested as people always do that it's social engineering," he told The Independent.

"The first thing is it isn't being tied to a candidate. This is like any other equal opportunities monitoring. It's very welcome they are doing this.

"It's important that in careers where there is known to be a socioeconomic problem that companies are monitoring the backgrounds of their workforce."

Several caveats needed to be considered with regards the 12 questions being trialled by the Cabinet Office, said Mr Johnston.

Firstly, staff in both junior and senior roles needed to be assessed since many of the least represented groups, such as women, often began their careers with promise but were not visible at higher levels.

Second, questions such as whether an applicant had been a carer or a refugee were likely to produce such negligibly small data as to be useless, said Mr Johnston.

"There is an issue with lumping so many different issues together," he said.

"Those are such niche categories that it will difficult to work out what the problem is. I think it's important to stick to things that can be meaningfully analysed."

Having parents who attended university, being on school meals and going to a private or state school - with state divided into selective and non-selective schools - were the three most important criteria, added Mr Johnston.

The measures follow a report for the Cabinet Office on its Fast Stream graduate scheme by social mobility policy charity the Bridge Group.

Applicants from Cambridge and Oxford disproportionately accessed the scheme, the report showed. Meanwhile, other research has shown that privately schooled pupils take 44 per cent of places at Oxford and 40 per cent of places at Cambridge, as well as 40 per cent at Durham and Bristol.

Ben Gummer, a Cabinet Office minister, announced the new questionnaire in a press release: "I am committed to ensuring that anyone with the right talents and aptitude can serve in the civil service, no matter what their background," he said in a press release.

"Understanding social background through a set of measures, commonly used by employers, will enable us to assess whether we are attracting the widest possible talent and to make decisions which are based on sound evidence."

The questionnaire will first be tested on 4,000 senior staff in Whitehall so that its 12 measures can be whittled down to three to five final by the end of the year. Employers will also be guided on how they could use them.

The 12 questions are they currently stand are:

1. Have you spent time in care?

2. Have you ever had refugee or asylum status?

3. Were you a carer as a child?

4. What type of secondary school did you attend?

5. What was the name of the school?

6. Did your parent, guardian or carer complete a degree?

7. What is their highest qualification?

8. What is your home postcode aged 14?

9. Were you eligible for free school meals?

10. What is your parent, guardian or carer's occupation?

11. What accomodation tenure did they have as a child?

12. Please self-assess your socio-economic background status.