Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they are taking, if any, to encourage civil servants to return to work in the office.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
Following the lifting of COVID-19 restrictions, civil servants have been increasingly returning to the office.
The Minister for Brexit Opportunities and Government Efficiency has written to departments to underline the importance of workplace attendance and request that they review their existing guidance on the minimum number of days staff work in the office to ensure we are making efficient use of the government estate.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants who are currently primarily working from home received London weighting additional allowances in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
London weighting was removed as a prescribed central allowance in the 1990s. Civil Service pay arrangements have been delegated to individual departments for all grades below the Senior Civil Service, since 1996. London pay arrangements will therefore vary significantly between departments.
There is no central source of data that links those working from home to pay conditions.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many executives in charge of government agencies receive annual bonuses; which executives receive such bonuses; and in each case, what is the value of those bonuses.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency, departments have published aggregated annual information on their bonus spend on their own websites since 2011. This promotes scrutiny of how taxpayers’ money is spent. The latest data, which covers the performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many civil servants received bonuses in addition to their salaries in the last year for which figures are available.
Answered by Lord True - Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal
As part of the Government’s commitment to transparency, departments have published aggregated annual information on their bonus spend on their own websites since 2011. This promotes scrutiny of how taxpayers’ money is spent. The latest data, which covers the performance years 2019/20 and 2020/21, was published on Government Departments’ websites on 31 March 2022. This data includes information on total bonus spend, the number of civil servants receiving bonuses, and the size of payments.
Regarding the second question: executive agencies publish individualised data on payments received by their Board-level members in their Annual Accounts. This includes data on which executives receive bonuses, and the size of any payments. Since 2010, the Government has made bonuses across the Civil Service more tightly focussed on top performance; current spend on them is around 1 percent of the total Civil Service paybill.
Asked by: Lord Morris of Aberavon (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of civil servants at the DVLA worked from home in the last 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The information is not available in the format requested. The table below shows information on the percentage of Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency staff working from home on the first Monday (or subsequent working day) of each month.
Date | Percentage of staff working from home |
7 Mar 2022 | 39.9 |
7 Feb 2022 | 40.2 |
4 Jan 2022 | 38.0 |
6 Dec 2021 | 38.3 |
1 Nov 2021 | 36.2 |
4 Oct 2021 | 35.4 |
6 Sept 2021 | 34.8 |
2 Aug 2021 | 33.4 |
5 Jul 2021 | 34.7 |
7 Jun 2021 | 34.4 |
4 May 2021 | 34.9 |
6 Apr 2021 | 33.4 |
The vast majority of staff responsible for processing the 60,000 items of mail the DVLA receives every day can only do their work effectively in the office as it involves the handling of sensitive original documentation, for example medical information, birth certificates and passports. These staff have to attend the workplace for their contracted working hours. Staff working from home are mainly in support areas, for example, policy, finance, HR and IT. These staff are doing their jobs fully effectively remotely.
The Welsh Government’s guidance, updated on 25 March, continues to ask those who can work from home to do so. The DVLA has opened up space for these staff to attend the office when they need to, such as for meetings or workshops and plans are in place to return staff to the office when restrictions lift further.