Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment the Department has made of the salary outcomes, promotion rates and role progression of participants in the Directors Leadership Programme compared to a control group of comparable civil servants who did not participate; and what cost benefit analysis the Department has undertaken on expenditure on the programme including any assessment of average time to promotion, changes in performance markings, retention rates and the financial return on investment to the public purse.

A comprehensive assessment of salary outcomes, promotion rates, and role progression for Directors Leadership Programme participants against a control group (or formal cost-benefit analysis) is not currently feasible. A feasibility assessment for management evaluations showed that the required workforce data for rigorous evaluation on these issues are either not easily available or not held centrally; or sufficient time has not passed for enough participants to provide robust data on these measures. An implementation and process evaluation of DLP is in progress, with a public-facing report expected around Summer 2026. A public-facing report is also planned at the same time on the lessons learned (and guidance) on sharing workforce data to facilitate analysis in future on similar issues.