The cabinet secretary has reiterated the need for the civil service to be more diverse.

Sir Gus O'Donnell welcomed the progress made so far, but emphasised that more needed to be done to meet the targets he has set for 2013.

The only way the civil service would meet future challenges is if it represented the public it serves, he explained to a diversity conference organised by Capita.

Sir Gus wants 39 per cent of senior civil servants to be women and five per cent of the senior civil service (SCS) to be black and minority ethnic (BME) staff by 2013.

The picture has already improved since 1997. The number of women in the SCS has increased from 16.7 per cent to 33.2 per cent, while the number of BME staff in the SCS has increased from 2 to 3.7 per cent.

Sir Gus said he was "proud to lead a diverse, inclusive civil service that has innovation and professionalism at its core".

"Over half of all civil servants are women and we have nearly twice as many people from BME backgrounds as we did ten years ago, but we know there is more we can do which is why diversity is one of my corporate priorities," he added.

"Across the country, civil servants are rising to current challenges, giving people the help they need and working to ensure that we emerge as quickly as possible from the global recession.

"To meet our future challenges we must continue to build a workforce that is representative of the public we serve, and that is passionate about making a difference to all parts of society, especially those hardest to reach. That is the kind of civil service that will be able to deliver excellent public services to all."

* Entries for Civil Service World's Diversity Awards are due to close this week. For further information visit www.civilservicenetwork.com/diversity