The civil service's diversity drive was given a boost with the most recent intake of fast-streamers.

Data relased by the Cabinet Office on Tuesday showed that female candidates and candidates who declared themselves to be disabled were all more likely to be successful in 2008 than they were the year before.

The proportion of successful women rose from 45 to 48.2 per cent while successful candidates who declared themselves disabled rose from 8.7 to 12.6 per cent.

The percentage of successful candidates from Oxford or Cambridge Universities fell to 29.1 per cent, from 31.3 per cent the year before.

Almost all the figures show that the civil service continues to move away from the traditional image of the white, male, Oxbridge-educated mandarin, but the data concerning ethnic minority candidates to the fast stream will be a disappointment.

The proportion of successful ethnic minority candidates dropped from 9.5 per cent in 2007 to 9.3 per cent last year.

Only last week, cabinet secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell, speaking at a diversity conference, reiterated his wish for the civil service to more accurately represent the population.

While the civil service as a whole can pride itself on being fairly representative - 53 per cent of employees are female, for example - that equality is not replicated in the senior civil service (SCS) where only 33.2 per cent of officials are women.

One of the ways that the service has identified of ensuring its leaders are more diverse is through the fast stream.