Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the answer of 2 January 2026 to Question 100340 on Senior Civil Servants: Recruitment, how many senior civil servants have been recruited to posts not advertised externally in the last 12 months.

Between 1 January 2025 and 31 December 2025, there were 90 provisional offers made for Senior Civil Service (SCS) posts (permanent and temporary) that were advertised across government but not advertised externally. This is data obtained from Civil Service Jobs and does not include internal recruitment, which might have been conducted within a department. As per our External by Default policy, SCS vacancies which are not advertised externally must be approved by a Minister or Permanent Secretary equivalent in non-Ministerial departments.