Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many officials in his Department who received the (a) exceeded, (b) met and (c) must improve performance mark under the Civil Service Employment Policy Performance Management System (i) had a disability, (ii) worked full-time and (iii) worked part-time in 2013-14.

In common with other Government Departments, BIS has three performance management categories, but uses the titles Category 1, Category 2, and Category 3. Category 1 encompasses our high performers, while Category 3 has been expanded, in comparison to other Departments, to place more emphasis on identifying those who have greater learning or development needs and providing them with more focused development opportunities and support, as well as including poor performers.

It was anticipated that 20 – 25% of BIS staff would fall into the third category during the 2013-14 reporting year.

The following table shows the number of individuals that have declared a disability who were awarded each performance rating in 2013-14 and the number of other staff that received each rating within that performance year. Diversity declarations are voluntary and currently within BIS they are low. Analysis of the 2013/14 performance management outcomes is correct for those that have made a declaration. However, any attempt to consider these findings as being representative for the Department, as a whole, should be viewed with caution as we are not confident that the data is an accurate reflection for staff with protected characteristics.

The following table demonstrates the number of individuals that that work part-time and full-time that were awarded each performance rating in 2013-14.

The current BIS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy aims to improve performance outcomes for minority groups, with particular focus on Black and Minority Ethnic staff, disabled staff and older workers. Various methods are being used to do this, such as mandatory unconscious bias training for managers, a new Reverse Mentoring programme to expose leaders to the diversity within BIS and consistency checking and validation processes across directorates for performance ratings.